My Only The Only One
by QoD-Dev
Summary: Re-write to my somehow popular story 'My Only'. Earth belongs to the Empire, and Zim is given less than a heroes treatment. Blaming Dib, he allows himself to be captured by the human resistance. ZaDR/m-pregishness/obvious gayness. Don't like, don't read.
1. Chapter 1

Hi all! MEC is back and, quite honestly, a little tired. But I'm feeling rather good about how this chapter came out. There's a little drama, a little action, a little suspence, all that good stuff!

Anyway, welcome to the first chapter of a greatly improved, My Only! I re-read my story the toehr day, feelign the itch to write, and I couldn't help but think, "I can do WAY better than that." So, now, here we have what become of my lighting a fire under my own ass. Won't be sitting for a week, but at least you guys have something to read, right?

Ok, I'm not that funny. Just read the story and review. But like I said before, the first seven chapters are free, no review limit. I'll try and get them out in a timely fashion, which shouldn't be that hard being most of the story already exists. XD Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything. I just borrow other people's things and make sh*t up.

Special thanks: CJ. Cause, you know, you do stuff. Special stuff. No, not THAT special, only a little special... and over the internet which makes it less special... ok, it's not special, but you're cool, so it's ok. Thanks for reading this before hand. And don't worry, you'll find out what happens next after I write it, same as everyone else.

* * *

Revenge. That was the only thing on one 'Invader' Zim's mind as he was led up to a massive podium, positioned in the gaze of one of the most powerful beings in existence. The Control Brain. One of many who over saw the irkens' mission for conquest of the known universe. No one knew where they came from, and if the Brains had their way, which they usually did, no one ever would. The only important thing was that they were all knowing and that the most powerful race in the universe followed their every command.

Soon after the conquest of Earth one of the seventeen located on Judgmentia had insisted he be moved there, to start the expansion to that side of the universe. As soon as he was locked tightly in one of the many eco domes bubbling up from the planet's surface to protect the irkens living there from the rain, Zim was put on trial.

Treason, murder, illegal hacking, these were just a few of the charges against him, all of which could result in his death.

"Irken Food-Service Drone Zim." The Brain addressed the small irken. "How do you respond to the charges brought up against you?"

Zim stared at the floor. This was all Dib's fault! If he hadn't gotten in the way none of this would have happened!

"Zim, how do you respond?" The Brain asked again.

"I'm innocent!" Zim instantly shouted. The race, it seemed, in unison, rolled their eyes. "It was all the human DIB's fault! I would have had this planet ages ago if it wasn't for him! I wouldn't have had to resort to the hacking! I could have made up for the other stuff!"

"You destroyed half our finest soldiers!" Red shouted, glaring at the smaller irken from another pedestal. "Nothing you could EVER do will make up for that!"

"Not to mention the deaths of two former Tallest!" Purple shouted in agreence.

"That wasn't my fault either!" Zim quickly said. "That was all that stupid La-!" But he was quickly cut off by the brain.

"Enough." He said, calmly but loudly. "I've heard enough. Judging will now begin." And with that a long tendril of a cord came down from the top of the dome, attaching itself to the bound and kneeling irken's pak, scanning through its memory.

Zim's breathing picked up. He knew what it would find there, he knew, he'd be absorbed, or worse, ERASED! He had to escape!

He looked around, quickly spotted two perfect scapegoats. "OVER THERE!" He shouted, motioning with a nod of the head two domes over. "Two humans! And unscheduled mating! They're sucking face!"

The crowd as a whole turned, including the Tallest, giving him the perfect opportunity to stand and turn, ripping the cord from his pak as he ran, arms bound behind his back slowing him down. However the head start he'd gotten from his diversion made it possible to leave the crowd.

The Tallest quickly turned and Red scowled. "Call the Elite!" He yelled, turning to one of his guards. "Don't let him leave the atmosphere!"

Zim ran out of the dome, heading straight for another. A parking dome wasn't too far away. Transporters led from there to the Earth's moon, which had been converted to a parking satellite.

"Hold it Defect!" A gruff voice called, making Zim pause and turn momentarily. He hurriedly continued running however at the sight of five irken Elites on his tail, concentrated plasma batons in hand.

He made it inside, knocking over two transporter maids in an effort to deter the trained soldiers, but they hopped over the make-shift speed bumps without missing a beat. Zim, however, was not one to lose hope. He'd gone through the same, rigorous training as the Elite, something the Tallest and everyone else quickly forgot in their joking and teasing of the ex-invader.

Both hands held tightly behind his back, he used his momentum to jump and push against a wall, putting him on the flat surface of the top of one of the transporters. He quickly righted himself to hop along them, trying to get to the higher ones, which he knew would put him on the farthest side of the Moon, allowing him a little more escape time if he could make it.

The Elite followed him like blood hounds, one following him in his stunt, the others following along the ground for when he fell. Zim was clumsy like that after all.

"Gatcha' Defect!" The one who followed him declared. A female from the sound of her voice. She was right, he was cornered.

"I'm no defect!" He yelled, turning to face the soldier. With them so high up at this point though, he at least had until the elevator got to the ground and back up to beat this much more armed soldier. He pulled his arms behind him, bringing them up over his head and twisting them to the front, so at least he could guard himself.

"Give it up, Zim." The Elite female said with a smirk on her pretty lips. "You can't even get into your pak; do you really think you could beat me with your hands tied up like that?"

"I don't have to beat you." Zim pointed out simply. "I just have to get away."

"That's not likely, Defect." She said, twirling her plasma baton expertly before swinging it at Zim like a sword.

Zim dodged expertly. If it was one thing Zim knew how to do it was avoid things, and he avoided that burning hot beam of plasma like he was being paid handsomely for it. Which, if one counted their life, he was. He moved this way and that, avoiding the edges of the platform he was on before doing something the Elite didn't expect, and instead of dodging the blast he moved his hands to meet it, effectively severing his metal bonds and allowing him use of his hands.

"Which ones more defective I wonder?" Zim asked, smirking. "The defect or the one that looses to said defect?" And, taking advantage of her surprise, planted a kick in her gut before jumping from the platform and swinging into the pod below it. The transporter automatically activated, sending him to a lunar parking lot.

"What are you!?" The Elite captain called up to his soldier. "A smeet or an Elite!? How could you let him get away!?"

"What are you, an idiot!?" She called back. "You couldn't have shut the transporters down!?"

"Bathroom duty all next week!" He called back and her perfectly curled antennae wilted. Bathroom… duty?

* * *

Zim moved quickly to a transport ship loaded with what looked like machinery, nothing that can't be replaced and nothing that would explode if he was under fire. He knew he would be followed soon and he needed to hurry. He hopped into the driver's side and quickly powered up.

His flying skills were not the best around… hardly even worthy of being called the worst. Most would say Zim didn't have flying skills at all, at least none enough to speak of. Simply put he caused a lot of damage taking off, making tracking him much easier to do than Zim would have liked.

He was quickly followed from the lunar parking lot by three Elite ships, mostly likely a different team than the one he encountered in the parking dome.

Lucky for him, however, the same piloting skills that got him noticed, also made it hard to shoot him, his driving much too erratic to predict properly.

"What's wrong with you!?" The Captain yelled into everyone's ear pieces. "Shoot him!"

"We're trying!" One yelled back, firing five shots in rapid succession, hitting the corner of the giant trunk.

Zim growled as the ship with rocked and, thinking quickly, he stopped abruptly, letting the Elite ships pull ahead and letting off a few blasts of thick lasers all delivery ships were equipped with. Just for protection and destroying blockage of space metals, which caused heavy damage to two of the unlucky Elite cruisers.

"I can't move!" One called to their captain.

"Neither can I!" The captain yelled before addressing the only one who's ship could move. "It's up to you rookie! Don't let us down!"

The newest recruit gulped and nodded which obviously couldn't be heard over the sound system. Zim pulled ahead once more, quickly making a break for one of Earth's neighbor planets. The remaining ship followed the irken quickly. This made Zim nervous, Elite ships could run circles around half the ships being piloted in the armada and this was a low budget vessel he was piloting. The odds weren't in his favor, but he was too nervous to calculate the exact numbers.

"I've got you now!" The rookie yelled, preparing to fire his heavier blasters, but was quickly caught off guard by the five other ships that appeared in their proximity. Two of them opened fire on the Elite vessel, causing a small explosion in space's vacuum and effectively destroying the ship.

The other three ships, however, did not seem to be coming to his rescue, as they quickly surrounded him, armed and dangerous looking.

"Irken delivery vessel." Someone broadcast to him in English. Ah, Earthlings. "You are to hand over your load and give yourself up peacefully. Try anything and you'll be shot on spot."

Zim snorted, an amazing feat for a being without a nose. Shoot him. On the other hand they did lay waste to that Elite ship.

He pressed a button on the ship that copied the frequency used by the ship talking to him and replied, "Fine, you've got me."

There was a pause, probably surprise on the other side before the human answered back, "Very well. Someone will be boarding your ship to take you into custody. Don't try anything funny."

Zim only smirked, pleased. Earth was conquered but a few months ago. These humans were probably some of the few who made it of the surface of the planet alive. One of which most likely included Dib, and if the Membrane logo on each of the ships was anything to go by, he would be wherever they were taking him.

It didn't take long for Zim to be back in cuffs and taken to yet another cell to await trial. This time though he was ready for it. Welcomed it even.

* * *

Dib huffed out his nose, indignant and upset. Earth was conquered, and it was all because the idiots of his race couldn't listen to him. Did they appreciate the fact that he was right though? Nope. They were just worried about their ruined life and what Membrane and his brilliant family were going to do to fix things.

Currently the entirety of the human race that wasn't enslaved was fit in a single space station about the size of a city. Membrane had been working on it for a few years, and so far only about half the quadrants were active, which was about all they needed for now.

Dib heard whooping and hollering from the few military they had, the one's willing to pilot ships out in space and attack anything that came near. They had also taken to capturing any sort of transport vehicle. This could potentially be dangerous as it could give away their position, but it seemed like the irkens had just barely noticed. So far their spoils included a bunch of machinery, some weapons, two unfinished ships, crates upon crates of snacks, and a couple of vortian slaves, which have proved useful.

"We got another one!" They were yelling through the halls. Dib left his room, to see just what they 'got' and to make sure he stayed in the loop. People didn't really like to talk to him about things, so he had to resort to eaves dropping.

The six pilots where wearing victory grins as they stood next to a typical delivery ship, stocked full of what looked like factory parts, a cuffed irken hanging under one of their arms, looking indignant and unimpressed by the attention he was getting.

Something about the irken seemed familiar, but he couldn't see through the crowd, and really a lot of them looked alike.

The 'heroes' were being lead through the hall, giving Dib the chance to catch a glimpse of their irken.

Dib gasp, that was… "ZIM!"

Zim's antennae perked up upon hearing his name. That was Dib! But instead of looking around he just hung limp again. Good, his reasoning had been right. For once.


	2. Chapter 2

Ok, got this one out pretty quick, can't promise all the cahpters will come this quick, but reviews do keep me in the 'mood.'

The writing mood you pervs!

No, I kid. Anyway, I'm hoping to make the next couple of chapters longer. I'm writing out a lot of the scenes I just skipped over in the first version, but there will be quite a bit of skipping in the next chapter, only because transition scene bore me to tears and I don't want to have to subject you to THAT. (The transitions scene or me crying.)

For those of you who care, btw, I'M ALMOST EIGHTEEN! WOO! I'm so excited! My friends and I are all gonna go be teenagers one last time for my birthday and we're gonna go to MEDIEVIL TIMES!

Hey, the blue knight is CUTE!

But noone cares about that. XD Just be excited for me ok!? TWO MONTHES! JUNE! YAY!

* * *

Time was a difficult thing to predict in space, as any good science fiction fan would know. But Zim let himself assume that the space station, being so close Earth, was still working by Earth time, which meant three hours passed before Dib came to see him.

"Zim, what the hell!?" He yelled, barging into the brig. "You conquered Earth, what are you doing driving a delivery craft and getting yourself captured!?"

Zim's antennae perked up and one eye narrowed, he was confused. "Is that worry, anger, or some other kind of odd Earth emotion?" He asked.

"It's… CONFUSION!" Dib yelled. "How could you of all people possibly have ended up in a place like this!?"

"Did you ever think it was maybe because I wanted to?" Zim asked, smirking up at Dib from his position on the ground, crossing his legs straight out in front of him. The picture of smugness.

"Wanted to?" Dib asked before gasping. "You're being tracked! You led the empire to us!"

"Wrong again, Earth smell." Zim said, cackling. "My pak is jammed. The only thing it's doing right now is keeping me alive."

"Why does that make you happy?" Dib asked, looking confused now more than ever.

"I don't expect you to understand the complexity of Irken government, Dib-stink." Zim said simply, waving a hand.

"Complex?" Dib asked, scoffing a little. "Your rulers are just taller than everyone else. What's to understand?"

"See, your puny human mind just can't keep up." Zim said, sighing as though he felt bad for Dib.

"Whatever." Dib said, rolling his eyes. "Maybe I was just wrong. Maybe you ended up here because you really aren't anything special. Just lucky."

"While I am quite fortunate I AM special." Zim said, suddenly scowling. He held the look before smirking once more. "Maybe when I get out of here I'll tell you all about it."

"You aren't getting out of here, space-boy." Dib said, allowing his own lips to twist up in a smug look. "Not without your pak. Those bars are made of steel and there are guards positioned at every entrance and exit, including the trash bin."

"You say 'space boy' like it's an insult." Zim said, laughing a little. "But you seemed to have forgotten that you were driven into space yourself. 'Space-boy'."

Dib pouted angrily before leaving, letting Zim's echoing cackle follow him from the brig.

(break)

Zim waited a week, patiently eating the crap they fed him and the daily interrogation he got from Dib.

"Why are you here?"

"What are you planning?"

"Why haven't you escaped yet?"

On and on that human would go. It's like he didn't know HOW to stop!

Finally, day eight and at lunch time the guard came, no lunch.

"You're wanted for questioning, bug." The scrawny guard said, scowling at Zim like he always did.

He opened the cell and Zim walked out of the brig behind him, waiting until the brig door was shut and locked before kicking the back of the man's legs, sending him to the floor.

"Help! HELP!" He screamed, but Zim quickly silenced him with a kick to the back of the head and grabbed the keys.

He found the one to his cuffs and released himself. Unfortunately there was nothing he could do about his pak and he had to pull himself up to the air vents with his own hands. The feat was much more difficult than he previously thought and he hung there for several minutes before being able to get it. Once in though he crawled along his belly searching for the living quarters.

Having no sense of direction was hard when you were trying to find your way in pitch black with only spots of light along the way. Thirty minutes into his search someone finally noticed he was gone and sounded the alarm.

Thirty minutes later he found the living quarters, Dib hanging around outside his door. He was obviously waiting for the irken.

Zim cursed. The element of surprise was gone and he'd have to face Dib head on. He hated that! Dib always won when the element of surprise was lost!

No, Zim told himself. Not this time! I have something to fight for now!

He righted himself and kicked the vent out, dropping down to the floor only a little ways away from the human.

"It's about time Zim."Dib said, smirking. "What, did you get lost?"

"Silence human!" Zim yelled, glaring.

Dib turned, opening his door and motioning Zim in. "Come on Zim."

"Do you think I'm STUPID?" Zim asked, cackling.

"Yeah, but that's not the point." Dib said with a smirk. "If you want to fight me get in here. If you want to fight Dad's guards go ahead and stay out here."

Zim grit his teeth. Dib was right. He could hear the guards coming. Instead of just walking in though he charged at Dib, tackling him into the room and the door shut behind them automatically.

Dib grunt as he fell to his back, the wind knocked out of him. Quickly though he recovered his bearing, bringing a fist up to knock Zim in the face. Then again, trying to get the irken off him.

Zim wouldn't have it, he grabbed the arm and threw a punch to opposite way, nailing Dib in the temple and breaking a lens on his glasses.

"You ruined my life!" Zim shrieked, punching at Dib again and again.

Did brought his free hand up to protect his face, the other wrenching from Zim's weakening grip and returning with a punch to the stomach. This stunned Zim enough for Dib to push himself out from under the invader and kick at his face.

Zim fell back with a heavy grunt and Dib took this opportunity to grab a weapon. His sister's bat.

"How did I ruin your life!?" Dib yelled. "You're the one who took over my planet!"

"Shut up! Just shut up!" Zim yelled, pulling himself up. He rushed at the human, not even bothering to plan his attacks anymore. He wanted to hurt Dib, he didn't care where or how, he just wanted the human to know his pain!

Dib preempted the attack, striking Zim in the side with the bat. Knocking the irken into his bed.

Zim bounced, landing on his butt next to the bed and kicking at Dib's feat, sweeping them out from under him.

Dib fell back onto his tail bone, yelping in pain. He quickly though scrambled to his knees, but Zim was already up and rushing at him once more. So the human held the bat out like a spear, the irken running into it. The bat stabbed him in the chest and the cracking noise that ensued had the human flinching. Something was broke.

Zim gasped and took a few steps back, holding a hand to his chest. It hurt to breath and spots were dancing before his eyes.

Before Zim could recover and attack again Dib stood and swung the bat, hitting Zim on the side of the head.

(break)

Zim laid there for a moment. He wasn't really 'knocked out', not really, but stunned. He groaned and picked himself up, growling in pain as fire shot through his chest. He fell back.

"So, gonna tell me how I'M the one ruining your life?" Dib asked, sitting on his bed, bat still in hand.

"Not ruining." Zim gasped, moving a hand to feel his chest. "Ruined. I have no life anymore."

"Ok, so how is that my fault?" Dib asked. "You took over my planet. You enslaved my entire race."

"No, not me." Zim said, squinting his eyes at how painful it was to breathe.

"Not you?" Dib asked, standing in outrage, but keeping his voice down in case the guards came looking.

"No." Zim said, shaking his head. 'I had nothing to do with that. The Tallest came and took it on their own. Then they had me locked up and put on trial."

"Trial?" Dib asked, suddenly intrigued. He sat back down to listen. "What for?"

"Lots of things. But that's NOT THE POINT." Zim growled, glaring at Dib. "No. The point is if you hadn't gotten in my WAY and I had BEEN the one to conquer Earth I wouldn't have been put on trial! They would have forgiven me!"

Dib was silent. Zim wasn't a hero?

"Now I have NOTHING!" Zim was yelling now, despite the pain. "I was seconds away from being ERASED! And it's ALL YOUR FAULT!"

Dib felt… somehow… sympathetic to the alien.

"Zim," He said, climbing to the floor and pulling the alien up.

"Ah!" Zim yelped at the pain in his chest. He quickly tensed, waiting for what was surely the ending blow, but it didn't come. Instead he felt warm arms wrapped around him and he was hulled up.

"What are you doing?" The irken asked, eyes wide.

"Getting you to the med ward." Dib said, arranging Zim so he was leaning against the human's side and supporting him.

"Why?" Zim asked, suspicious gaze on the human.

"Because you're hurt, obviously." Dib said smartly.

"Quiet human, you know that's not what I meant." Zim barked, but didn't argue anymore than that. Dib was right, he was hurt, and just this once wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. He couldn't afford to.


	3. Chapter 3

Sorry for how long this chapter took, and how short it is. I'd put more here but I, like, just woke up and am slightly brain dead. I might have more to say in response to some reviews though.

* * *

Zim was diagnosed with one broken rib from the force he hit that baseball bat with, but irkens were sturdy. The rib was already in the proper position to heal, so after a quick and painless surgery to make sure the rib stayed there, Zim was put back in his cell and given extra guards.

He didn't care though. His plan had failed and there would be no other attempts with the human so aware. Dib got to live out his life, while Zim was confined in his cell, curled up in a corner so as not to be seen.

That didn't last, however. After only an hour he was up and pacing, keeping his strides even so as to not over exert his lungs. Why? Why did that human spare his life? Was it pity? No, that wasn't it; Dib didn't feel pity or compassion for an alien. The more he thought the more paranoid his thinking got until he could picture himself lying there on a cold, metal table, the skin of his chest and stomach peeled off to reveal his layers of muscle, and then his organs.

"No!" He finally screamed, kicking at his bars. "I won't let you have my squeedily spooch! It's not happening!"

Zim's brain began to slowly ferment in his paranoia and panic finally set in. Days, DAYS he sat wasting in his cell. He wouldn't eat their food or drink their poop cola! Tallest only knew what the Dib had put in there! His blood sugar gave out but even then he wouldn't sleep. They'd do it once he wasn't paying attention! They were waiting for him to sleep so they could take him without a struggle!

"What are you doing!?" Dib demanded. He'd been in and out of the cell for ten days straight, trying to get the irken to eat or drink something, but all attempts proved futile.

"I won't let you… get away with these… these things, Dib-human! No, not these things, not at all!" Zim declared, trying to get at the human through the bars but Zim was too weak and Dib was too far away.

"I'm not doing anything! Why won't you eat!?" Dib yelled.

"Because! I won't fall for it! Didn't then and won't now! Nope!" Zim ranted, going on and on for the next hour with examples of Dib's stupidity, none of which made any sense and worried Dib severely. Zim was losing it. His mind was coming unhinged and Dib had to watch as his once enemy's brain slowly turned to goop.

"Zim, NO ONE wants your organs." Dib insisted, pressing himself against the bars to show Zim his sincerity. "I mean it. My dad JUST wants to talk to you, and you have to be alive for that, so why would we want to kill you?"

"I don't know, you're the insane humans! Not me!" Zim made a point of acting like a child, pouting and crossing his arms as though he'd just won.

"Zim, PLEASE." Dib insisted. "I know you don't believe me but I REALLY don't want you to die, ok? I don't. It's not even about my dad or the talking, I just don't want to see you go like this."

"Well TOO BAD!" Zim shouted, laughing insanely. "Because I like giving you want you don't like and not giving you what you don't… don't like." He seemed to get bored with his own voice half way through this rant and sighed, pressing his fingers to his head.

"Zim, Zim!" Dib called as the alien began to sway on the spot. "Let me in!" He yelled at the guards. "You have to let me in!"

The guards quickly opened the cell and Dib caught the alien just as he collapsed.

"Zim, come on Zim don't get weak on me now." Dib encouraged, slapping the unconscious alien's face.

Zim groaned, turning his face from side to side and opening his eyes a slit, though he seemed to look at Dib unseeingly. Dib could only guess what was going through the green-bean's head.

"Why don't they want me anymore?" He asked, voice a whisper, which made Dib's ears ring. He expected shouting, as was usual for Zim. But then Zim wasn't acting usual at all.

"I don't know." Dib said simply. "I don't know, but they're dumb!"

"But they're the Tallest." Zim said, looking confused. "I must be really, really bad if they want me dead."

"No, no you're not. Even the Tallest can make mistakes." Dib said, putting a smile in his voice. "I bet right now they're thinking about how much they wish they had you back."

"Should I go back?" Zim asked, voice hopeful.

"No!" Dib said quickly, which made Zim look even more confused. "No, no. You should make them wait. After what they did to you, they deserve to yearn for a while, you know? Besides, 'absence makes the heart grow fonder.' Don't you know anything?"

Zim groaned, peeking an eye open further. "Of course I know that." He said, voice picking up volume, but only barely. "I am NOT stupid."

"See. You're not bad. You're really good. The Tallest MUST have made a mistake." Dib pointed out.

"Yes." Zim decided, humming and letting his eyes close. He snuggled up to Dib subconsciously. "Tallest made a mistake. They do that a lot with Zim. I shall see them later and make them admit it."

"That's a good idea, Zim." Dib said softly, stroking Zim's antennae back to lull him to sleep. The irken really needed it.

"Mmhm," The irken hummed, sighing as he finally drifted off.

* * *

"How are you feeling?" Dib asked as he walked into the medic bay. Zim was lying on a hospital bed, an IV in his arm, supplying him with some much needed sugar, and a tray of sweet treats near-by, a sugary cinnamon bun half eaten.

"Like an idiot." Zim said, looking as unhappy as ever, a little thin, but otherwise healthy. "I can't believe what I… Irk!"

"Everyone needs to open up sometime." Dib pointed out, and Zim just turned to him with a look of a very unimpressed cat.

"Who do you open up to, human?" The alien asked smartly.

"My sister." Dib said with just the same attitude, but with a smile on his face. "I saw you cry, Zim, does that make us friends?"

"Zim did not cry!" Zim said quickly, looking a little worried.

"Figure of speech. It means I saw you when you were vulnerable. Usually only friends get to see that side of you." Dib explained. This made Zim relax a little.

"What would you want to be my friend for?" Zim asked, giving the human a suspicious look.

"Look," Dib started, sitting in a chair close to the hospital bed. "I know you don't trust me. But you didn't take over my planet, and you have nowhere else to go. It would be good for you to have someone you can turn to here. Plus, I'm the most beneficial person since I'm close to Professor Membrane than anyone, which will give you some perks and a little protection."

"Protection?" Zim asked, scoffing. "I need no protection from yo-"

"You will." Dib interrupted. "Especially here. I know you could take on anyone here, Zim. I know you're strong, but if you hurt a human, even in self defense, people will want you gone. They will gang up on you emotionally and physically and there will be nothing you can do."

Zim pondered this a moment. Dib was right though, he knew that much.

"Zim, whether you like it or not, you need me. And quite frankly, I don't think I would mind having someone to talk to either. We're more alike than you know. The only difference is… my world's leaders finally wised up." Dib said, voice growing quiet.

Zim sighed, sitting up on the bed. "Do I have to… do anything?"

Dib laughed and shook his head. "No. I think we pretty much do the same things we used to… but for fun, instead of trying to kill each other."

Zim let that mull over in his head and moment before nodding. "That sounds doable."

"So," Dib hesitated before holding out a hand. "Friends?"

Zim took the hand gingerly, like he was afraid to touch it, but shook it anyway. "Yes. Friends."


	4. Chapter 4

Yay! Another Update! If this inspriation holds then you should be getting the next couple just as quickly.

This chapter, has a lot happeing in it, progress is made, revelations happen, and a little treat for everyone at the end because I love you guys.

Also, I wanna take this time to thank everyone for their reviews. ^^ In the end it's your guys' encouragement that keeps these chapters coming so quickly, so thank you everyone!

* * *

The weeks that followed Dib and Zim's new found friendship were rocky at best, neither having very much practice at it. All of Zim's friends previous had been considered more as tools, a means to reach his ends, and Dib, well, people just didn't like him.

Eventually they got into a smooth routine, however. Zim had been allowed free from the brig at the request of Dib, and pretty much slept on the human's floor.

"Like a sleep over!" Dib had said, trying to be optimistic. This earned him a punch to the face and Zim received a mattress the very next day.

Zim wasn't eager to trust Dib at first, the irken putting his back to the wall, just incase the big headed creature got any ideas. But after several nights of restless sleep Zim gave up. Even if the Dib-worm did try something he could easily defend himself.

Dib always woke up first, nudging the irken awake so they could do their individual rituals of hygiene and cleanliness. Dib would take a shower and brush his teeth and, for the benefit of Zim, dry his hair. Zim would just quickly run some cleansing chalk over himself in the corner of the room he'd claimed for himself and put on some horrible human clothing that had been provided for him.

It was simple jeans and a black t-shirt, but it was all the human's had to provide until the manufacturing wing of the space station was fully operational.

To make Zim feel better Dib would always comment on Zim's attire, telling him it looked good on him, and that at least it fit. Zim would scowl, but accepted the compliments and from there they went about their day.

Dib had a job on the space station. He over saw the creation of anti-irken weapons, having been making them since he was eleven anyway. With his help they had created at least fifteen different types of fire arms that were lethal to irkens specifically. Zim wanted nothing to do with this and for the three hours Dib had to go and inspect the latest advancements Zim wondered the halls.

There was nothing really to do yet to occupy ones time on the station except watch movies, if you had managed to save any, and play games with imaginary balls. Not that Zim would be invited to play any real games anyway. For the first time in his life, it seemed, Zim noticed the scorn on people's faces when they looked at him, and the hatred. Despite his being exiled from his race people seemed to have nothing but contempt for him. Not that he cared. The moment he had the means he would get off that human insect hive anyway. He would go find somewhere else to start his lonely life.

Then, just as thoughts of escaping were creeping up into his head, Dib would find him and they'd go back to Dib's sister's room and play some video games with her, only pausing for meals until it was time for bed or she kicked them out. Then they would spend the rest of the time discussing things of science or other races until they fell asleep.

* * *

"Alright jerk-wads. Time to stop mooching off my fun. I need to concentrate." Gaz declared quietly one day, squinting an eye at Zim and Dib, sitting on HER bed, playing HER piggy race game.

"Concentrate, on what?" Dib asked, but began putting the game up anyway.

"The manufacturing department is almost finished. I'm going to be in charge of overseeing the entertainment needs of the people here. In short, I'm going to be making video games." Gaz said simply, grabbing a few of her favorite games and putting them into her old school back-pack. "These are going to be copied for people to play now. But in a few years we should be able to start making new ones."

"Wow, who would have thought? Gaz is going to be the one who brings HAPPINESS to these people instead of doom." Dib said which earned him a book thrown at his head. This made Zim snicker.

"You'll hush." She declared, hands on her hips. "It's not like I'm doing this for charity. Dad also wants to start a credit system. Get some monetary flow going. But since the economy is basically nonexistent now he has to start over from scratch. He says the development of things people don't actually need will help get things going. So in about a year stores will be opening to sell these games, along with snacks and other things people don't really need, but will want. That way we can get some cash flow going instead of people just getting things for free."

"Makes sense." Dib said, rubbing the red spot blooming on his forehead.

"Clothes are also going to start being made. Of course none of them are going to be in fashion, since there aren't any real designers. But a lot of people here have learned to sew and can copy what is already here. So people should be able to get new ones." Gaz explained.

"Hey, you'll be able to buy new clothes." Dib said, throwing a smile at Zim.

"But how will I earn the credits?" Zim pointed out. "I'm not allowed to have a job here. They won't let me near anything that will wind up in another human's hands."

"They'll need your help eventually Zim." Gaz pointed out. "Once everything is back to normal they'll want you to give them information so they can take the fight to Earth."

"What!?" Zim cried. "No, I won't do it! They can't make me!"

"Zim, you can't honestly-." Dib began, but was cut off.

"Everyone has their price, Zim." Gaz said, smirking. "You will give up the information eventually. But don't do it for free, got it? Make betraying those ass-wipes who want you dead REALLY worth it. If nothing else you won't feel so bad for it later."

Zim grew silent and Dib just looked on worriedly. The Tallest were a touchy subject for Zim. He never liked talking about it. He just hoped one day he would so that the humans could take their home back.

* * *

It was a little maddening after a while, Zim deduced. People not liking you was one thing, but then the pranks started. Someone flooded the hall of the living quarters, leaving Zim trapped in his room. Then someone, probably someone close to the science department, set up random motion censored mist sprayers along Zim's usual walking route, earning him a blast of finely misted water every couple of feet.

By the next month after these pranks had started Zim was covered in chemical burns, a few of which were starting to scar. Some people had even been ballsy enough to confront him, pelting him with water balloons. When it didn't let up Dib decided to handle things, and angrily stalked form the room, being pelted with a few balloons himself.

The very next day Membrane released an announcement that water was to be rationed. There was no gardens to water, so water was to be used only for hygienic purposes or for drinking. Anyone caught doing otherwise would have to face the penalty of a week in jail and would be minus a couple hundred credits when that system finally got up and running.

The attacks suddenly stopped but for the random kid every once in a while. But after a while that faded out too.

That didn't make Zim feel any better though.

He was light-years from home, his own race despised him, thought he was a defect, and the only place he had to call home now also hated him. No, they more than hated him. It seemed everywhere he went people wanted him gone or dead or the next best thing. It began to once again eat at him from the inside out.

One morning, Zim and Dib had been friends for a couple of months now, Dib woke up first, as was usual, and went to nudge the irken awake. He wouldn't respond. This worried the human, and he pulled Zim out from under the covers and out from his tightly curled ball. The irken's antennae immediately pressed to the back of his head and he winced as though in pain.

"Zim?" The human asked, petting Zim's head as he'd done the night of the irken's breakdown. "Zim, what's the matter?"

"My head." The irken claimed, burying his face against the human's black pajama shirt, blocking out the scorching light. "It hurts."

"Where, what kind of hurt?" Dib asked, scooting up onto the bed. It was awkward to have the irken so close. He hadn't really thought about it the first time, but now… it made him blush.

Zim motioned to the front of his face with a twirling finger, mumbling something like, "Frontal.. lobel… area."

"Can irken's take aspirin?" Dib asked, stretching to reach his night stand drawer where he kept a bunch of pain relievers in a zip lock bag. They hadn't started manufacturing the bottles yet and he pretty much had to make them himself.

"Dunno." Zim croaked. "Never tried. Don't think… not a good idea."

Dib stopped reaching then, just holding Zim's head gently, hoping the pressure would at least help Zim to cope.

"How bad is it?" Dib asked after ten minutes of sitting there.

"Bad… bad bad." Zim whined, wrapping his arms around Dib's back and holding himself to the human's chest.

"What do you think is causing it?" Dib asked, being sure to be quiet in case it was anything like a human migraine. He would get those sometimes and no one was ever that considerate for him.

Zim could only shrug. He did know what was causing it, but saying it would require using his voice and at this point he was just gritting his teeth and bearing it. Usually in cases like this his pak would make his body release its own pain killers and maybe a few extra endorphins, but no one had been able to take the jammer from his pak and so he was left virtually useless. Alive, but in an extreme amount of pain.

Dib, after a half an hour of sitting there, finally had to move. He grabbed the irkens pillow and said, "Here, shield your eyes with this, I'll go turn the lights off."

The irken eagerly took the pillow, burying his face in it so hard, Dib was worried about the alien's breathing. So quickly he got up and turned out the light. The room fell to almost complete darkness, but Dib could see Zim move the pillow from his face.

"Better?" The human whispered as he went to kneel next to Zim. "I need to take a shower. Think you'll be alright?"

Zim nodded, humming in the positive before leaning against the wall.

Dib frowned. He felt pity for the irken. He was under so much stress it was a wonder Zim wasn't having these problems before.

"Why don't you hop in my bed?" Dib offered, motioning to the metal framed bed. "It'll be a little more comfortable if nothing else."

Zim again nodded and began crawling towards in. He got in under the sheets and curled up with his face under the pillow.

"I'll be quick." Dib assured, slipping into the adjoining bathroom and shutting the door before turning on the lights.

After showering and blowing his hair dry, along with a little teeth brushing to keep his morning breath from setting Zim's head ache worse he turned the light back off and slipped out of the bathroom. Zim hadn't moved since he went in there.

"Zim?" He whispered, going to sit on the edge of the bed and pull the pillow off gently.

Zim didn't fight, but he gave a grunt to show that he was awake.

"Is it any better?"

"No," Zim rasped, shaking his head. Something was wrong with Zim's voice.

"Zim… are you crying?" Dib was astonished, he almost couldn't continue whispering.

"No!" Zim said quickly, but the sob in his voice betrayed him.

"Zim? Are you ok? What's wrong?" Dib asked, feeling for the irken's face. Indeed tears were streaming down his cheeks. Or maybe it was blood? Only a physical injury could cause this response in someone like Zim, right?

"Everything." Zim said, giving up his front and sitting up. He sounded angry and a little desperate. "Did you know Dib, that I'm one in only a handful of irkens to ever be banished?"

Dib was quite, but even if he had something to say to that Zim didn't give him a chance before plowing on.

"I'm also the youngest irken to ever even almost fail an existence evaluation. The youngest to even have one. I think I'm one of the irkens with the most 'est's to claim ,and that's not even a good thing!" He was starting to breathe hard. "I was the shortest invader. I killed the most people accidently, I killed the most Tallests of any irken. I'm the first to ever visit Earth and the first to ever be arrested and tried on Earth! I'm the worst irken ever and I'll never see my home again!"

"Zim," Dib said, pulling the irken to him again. He let the alien cry on him as he continued what was possibly his sanest rant ever.

"And now I'm here! But you and I are the only people who want me here! All of your people hate me and I'm not even responsible for what happened to them! I'm burned! I can't go anywhere without having the back and front of me drilled with glares! They don't even have the decency to hate me behind my back!"

Zim reached his arms around Dib again and pressed his face into the human's chest again as he cried. Dib allowed this, rocking the irken back and forth, uttering soothing words into the alien antennae in front of him.

"It's alright, Zim. You're here with me. Nobody in this room hates you."

"There's no one in this room." Zim felt the need to point out through his tears.

"That's not true." Dib argued, laughing through his nose, which made Zim's antennae twitch. He did it again. Another twitch. "I'm in this room."

The crying ceased momentarily. This was true he supposed.

Zim was at a loss for words, so Dib just kept uttering soothing things to the irken, whispering encouragements and silly phrases into antennae, laughing that nosey laugh occasionally, all of which made Zim's antennae twitch uncontrollably.

Without warning the irken looked up at Dib, eyes droopy with what Dib assumed was fatigue. Letting all of that go must have taken a lot out of Zim, he thought.

He was proven wrong as Zim leaned up and placed a kiss on Dib's mouth.

If he hadn't been so shocked, Dib reflected after the fact, he probably would have screamed.

He was glad he was shocked.

The human's eyes went wide and he leaned back as though trying to see the scene better, but Zim just followed him, keeping his lips firmly attached to Dib's. When Zim finally pulled away he looked at Dib expectantly.

"What?" The human stammered, moving a hand to his mouth as though to shield it or to feel for poisonous fluids. "What was that for?"

"I thought it would make you feel more comfortable." Zim said, moving to his knees so he could raise himself above Dib.

"Why would you figure that?" Dib asked, leaning back and even scooting up the bed a little ways from Zim.

"Because it's usually customary behavior." Zim stated simply, the sobs falling from his voice as he seemed to even get excited. "Usually irkens skip straight to this part." And with that he practically lunged forward, pulling the towel Dib wore from around his waist, not having had time to get dressed yet.

The human practically squealed, staring wide eyed at his only source of coverage, now floating to the floor some ways from his current position.

"What are you doing!?" Dib shouted.

"Surely you know." Zim said, giving Dib a strange look. "You and I shared a sexual education class, remember?"

Oh yes, Dib remembered.

"What- what I meant is… why?" Dib asked, quickly grabbing his pillow to shield his groin as Zim began to inspect him.

"I really don't have time for rational conversations." Zim said with a sigh and lunged forward again, trapping Dib to the head board with hands on either side before once again descending on the human's lips.

This kiss was much more fierce, a long, thin tongue breaking past Dib's lips to find his own, human tongue. It twined rounded the muscle, , squeezing and pulsing in a way that made Dib stop trying to break free. He'd never kissed anyone before. The thought of swapping spit even seemed gross, but it appeared irken spit wasn't so bad, especially with an irken tongue doing those… things. In fact, their spit even seemed to taste good, something Dib stored away for later.

Zim took Dib's suddenly still form as permission to continue. He lowered his hands, grabbing Dib's hips in order to move him to the middle of the bed, half dragging his ass there and laying the human down.

Dib accepted, still dazed as Zim pulled from the kiss and clutching the pillow to his nether regions.

"Can I have that?" Zim asked with a smirk, pointing to the downy thing. Dib nodded and Zim took it, throwing it in the same direction as the towel.

Dib half expected to be probed then and there with some kind of anal monitoring device, but instead Zim began to peel at his own clothes. First he pulled off the blue pajama top. It was a spare of Dibs that he let the irken used… as was a lot of things. Not wanting to fight with buttons the alien just pulled it over his head.

Next to go was the boxer shorts he wore as bottoms. Both items went the same way as the towel, ending up somewhere on the floor.

Dib was surprised that they would both end up in an equal state of undress. He figured Zim would stay fully clothed during the whole thing, but apparently he was confident enough in his body to show it off to Dib.

He didn't bother to hide anything, even sitting back to let Dib's eyes explore.

His eyes strayed a little too long on one particular area of anatomy, making Zim grin.

Without warned the irken took a hold of the backs of Dib's knees, pushing them up to the poor human's shoulders, just about folding him in half.

"Now," He said, zipper like teeth being exposed form one end of his face to the other in a smirk. "The fun part."

* * *

A quick note before you guys rush to the review button (which I hope you all were doing). This chapter was not beta'd. I liked this chapter so much that I couldn't wait for him to get home from school to read through this, so if you came across any mistakes then please let me know sometime in the next sixty days. That would be really helpful, thank you!


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five up quick huh? This just shows you guys how much I loves you all!

This one is a little bit short again, but like chapter three this is more of a transition scene, but a fun one. ^^

I would also like to give special thanks to CJ for once again betaing. But not just betaing, he betaed early in the morning before going to school. So THANKS!

* * *

Dib gently ran fingers over the smooth, green skin of the alien on top of him, letting his mind drift happily as the chemicals in his brain ran amok.

He'd just had sex for the first time… with Zim. As girly as the thought made him feel he was deflowered by an alien and though that was weird he couldn't seem to even make himself be bothered with it. He hadn't even given much thought to his sexuality before, always just figuring he'd settle for whoever could settle for him, which he pictured to be a plain, mild-mannered girl with almost no future other than a regular nine to five job. His gaze had strayed on a few pretty girls in school before, sure, so he'd never felt the need to question whether he liked guys or not.

But then, maybe he didn't like guys. Maybe he just liked Zim… or Zim was REALLY good at kissing. Either way, the alien was currently naked and on top of him, eyes closed peacefully in post orgasmic bliss.

Finally, after a few peaceful minutes of almost sleep Zim began to shift, pulling himself off the human and rolling to the side, red eyes open and watching. Dib turned on his side to watch Zim as well, expecting some kind of embarrassed explanation. When he didn't get one he decided he'd better ask or be driven crazy with uncertainty.

"What was that for?"

Zim looked confused a moment before the question really sunk in. "The sex?"

Dib nodded.

Zim pouted a little as he thought about it, antennae twitching as he pulled for some kind of reasonable explanation.

"I wanted to." He finally said. "For one thing it forced endorphins to my brain which helped the head ache. Also you were… doing things that made me want to."

"What kind of things?" Dib asked, unsure if he was asking so he was sure it wouldn't happen again… or if he wanted to do it again.

"Breathing into my antennae." Zim said, a shiver running up his spine as he thought about it.

"That turns you on?" Dib asked, reaching out a hand to gently feel at one of the stalks. This made Zim shiver again and he eyes slide shut.

"Sometimes." Zim answered, his voice sounding suddenly drowsy. "That what you're doing is more like a back massage though."

Dib smiled at how untroubled Zim looked like that before pulling his hand away so Zim could think.

"But, I guess another reason I did that was to thank you." Zim informed the human after a while.

"Thank me?" Dib asked. "For what?"

At this Zim shrugged. "Pretty much everything I guess."

Dib was surprised. He had a feeling Zim was grateful to him, but always figured he would be too proud to admit it. He supposed the sex as a thank you made him right.

"So, what does this mean?" Dib asked after a moment of thought.

"What does what mean?" Zim asked.

"This… everything." Dib said, a blush rising to his face. "Are we together now? Or was this just a onetime thing?"

Zim seemed to actually ponder that question. "On Irk we wouldn't be. Sex is very casual… I think so it wouldn't become a distraction and is generally considered healthy for one's mental state… but if you want to be 'together' I guess we could do that."

"Do you want to be?" Dib asked Zim, unable to help reaching out and touching that green skin again. He ran his fingers over an arm, the skin there was clammy from the sweat that was now drying and the cold of the room. So the human reached under them and pulled the sheets back up and over them.

"Yeah," Zim said surprisingly quickly, pulling the sheet a little closer. "Yeah I think I do."

"Ok then." Dib said, hesitatingly reaching out and pulling the alien close. "We're boyfriends then."

* * *

Like with being friends it took a while for Zim and Dib to get used to being in a relationship. No one had ever liked Zim like that, having been considered among the irken community as short and ugly and not very desirable at all. Again… people just didn't seem to like Dib.

They began to sleep in the same bed together, a kiss was added to wake Zim up, along with right before Dib would leave for work. When he got off three hours later and found Zim wandering the halls, they would return to their room together, their fingers laced.

Most of the contact was for Dib's benefit, and was mostly something Zim just put up with. Affection wasn't in his programming, but he learned how to show it from various TV shows he'd seen and from how Dib behaved. He would hold the human's hand when he wanted, return his kisses, lean against Dib when his side was offered, and just generally stuck close.

Sex happened regularly, at least once a week. This was one thing Zim found easy to get into, especially since the human would eagerly give him tops when he wanted it. At first he was always the dominant one, and it continued to be so, even after Dib asked to top. The human quickly learned what a demanding submissive was.

And of course the alien wouldn't give up his spot on top easily. Blood was always drawn before he allowed Dib to take it.

No one else liked this relationship though. The humans all thought it was unhealthy, stupid, and dangerous. Their glares turned harder and insults louder, wanting to drive the irken away from one of their own. Neither paid any mind however. They just squeezed each other's hands and went about their business.

* * *

Months passed. It had been almost a full year since Zim arrived on the space station and while Dib was working he wandered the halls as was usual. Dib was taking extra long that day, however. Apparently something exploded, and so Zim made his way to the science department where Dib worked, hopping to see how much longer his human would be cleaning up the mess.

Before he got to the weapons department, however, he ran into the vortian slaves that the humans had rescued a while ago. There had been ten of them on the ship, and four were standing guard there, preventing Zim from passing.

"Sorry, no irken allowed past this point." One said. He was about as tall as Zim, and from the wrinkles on his grey skin he wore a constant sneer.

"Says who?" Zim asked, narrowing his eyes. He wasn't in the mood for anymore antagonizing.

"Everyone, of course." A shorter vortian said, crossing his arms. "No one wants you anywhere near the science department. They're worried you're going to sabotage something."

"Not that you'd do that on purpose, would you Zim?" The third vortian asked, laughing maliciously.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Zim asked, scowling.

"The humans might not be aware of your history Zim, but of course we are." The first vortian said again. "We know all about your defecting. The Horrible Painful Overload days, you causing the deaths of Tallests Miyuki and Spork. Oh, and of course the millions of your own race you killed on Operation Impending Doom One."

Zim's scowl turned vicious, his antennae pressed to the back of his head. "What right have you to bring that up?" He growled. "That's none of your business! Why would you even care!?"

The first vortian stepped up to Zim, getting in the irken's face. "Because we care about these people. They're working just as hard as the Resisty against the empire, and we don't want you screwing that up for them." He gave the irken a shove before continuing. "So why don't you go run and hide back in your room. No one wants you here."

Zim hesitated a moment, letting the insults sink into his brain, opening and festering in old wounds. That wasn't true, that couldn't be true! He was wanted! But the doubt already sunk in, making him shiver. This brought laughter to the vortian group and the leader pushed Zim again.

This time there was no hesitating. With a growl he pounced, knocking the taller vortian back and onto the ground. He was handicapped, his pak still sealed shut tight, but he wasn't completely useless without it. Straddling the vortian's stomach he punched the horned alien's face over and over, drawing blue blood as teeth scraped against the inside of his mouth.

Acting quick the other vortian's pulled Zim off, wrestling him to the ground. They were a lighter build than irkens, but with the three of them they managed to pin Zim down while they're leader clawed and punched at Zim.

Over ninety percent of irkens would have some sort of combat training, this contrasted drastically with the only twenty percent of vortians that did. These vortians were not among that twenty percent, so while the three were able to combine forces and hold him, the leader was unable to strike properly to cause the irken to go submissive. He was also unfit to guard himself while attacking, which gave Zim a big enough gap to rise and foot and kick at the tallest vortian's stomach hard.

With their leader down the other three were frightened. Zim began to struggle and flail, kicking, biting, clawing, punching, using any means necessary to get himself from the hold as he recovered. Two of them dropped, then the third, but he was quickly grabbed from behind around the chest, which made him panic. With the speed of a true soldier he turned and swiped at the obviously taller attacker's face, aiming for eyes.

The taller was quicker, however, turning so instead of eyes Zim got cheek, which the irken turned out to be grateful for. The taller turned out to be Dib, who had been trying to pull Zim from the fray. Zim panted, immediately calming from the sting of blood on his claws and the red dripping down his human's cheek.

"Come on Zim." Dib said, grabbing Zim's hand. The irken was hesitant.

"Dib, I-…."

"Come ON, Zim." Dib insisted, tugging on Zim's arm. Zim gave in, letting Dib lead them from the science hall way, which was attracting a scene, to their room. Zim turned on the light as they got in, Dib heading straight for the bathroom for the first aid kit that was kept in there. It was kept in a small, card board box, all the supplies just dumped in there.

In the room was a desk for Dib to work at when he wasn't in the science department, and Dib took the chair from the desk and sat it next to the bed where Zim was sitting. The chair was slightly higher, so Dib was able to see Zim's injuries much better.

"I'm fine," Zim insisted, but Dib just quieted him with a kiss.

First the human wiped the blood from Zim's face, the stream dripping from the corner of Zim's mouth and the small cuts littering his arms and chest.

"What happened?" He asked as he got the disinfectant and began to dab it over the cuts. Who knew what those scientists had on their claws. Dib knew at least two of them worked with chemicals.

"They taunted me." Zim explained, barely wincing at the liquid. "Then they pushed me. So I pushed back."

Dib just hummed. He put bandages on the cuts that needed it before sitting back up. But Zim pulled him back down, his claws gently holding Dib's face.

"I'm sorry, Dib." Zim said, grabbing another cloth, one that wasn't stained green with his own blood, and began to wipe the blood from Dib's face.

"It's ok." Dib said, sighing almost happily as Zim took care of him.

"No it's not." Zim insisted, putting a large bandage over it when he was done. He then got up on his knees on the bed to better reach Dib's mouth for a kiss. "It's not ok. Maybe everyone's right. Maybe it is dangerous for you to be with me."

"Zim, what are you talking about? It was an accident." Dib said, giving his boyfriend a confused look. "Besides," He added, pulling Zim from the bed and into his lap. "Maybe I like the danger."

Zim just sighed, kissing Dib's cheek over the bandage. "I'm so sorry Dib." He said, hugging onto Dib.

"Zim, it's just a scratch, it'll heal." Dib said, pulling from the hug so Zim could see the confused look on his face. But first he caught the pained one of Zim's. "Zim, what's wrong? You know you can tell me anything."

"You don't not want me?" Zim asked, gripping his hands in Dib's shirt.

"What?" Dib was confused. Where did that come from.

"I hurt you, but you still want me anyway?" Zim asked, antennae looking wilted.

"Of course I want you." Dib said, giving Zim a reassuring smile. "Zim, I'll always want you."

The human then picked Zim up, moving them both to the bed. "I'll want you and want you and want you." He chanted, kissing from the side of Zim's head to down his jaw. "Always."

Zim was satisfied by this answer, baring his neck to the human. Yes, that satisfied him very much.


	6. Chapter 6

Sorry guys for how long this took! Totally lame right!? I has good excuses though! Life has been hectic. I turned eighteen June Fifth 9yes yes, let's all celebrate that I can now buy porn! WOO!) Uuuuum, I've been looking for a job (total asses at the mall man. I go in there a week ago and ask if they're hiring, they tell me no. I go back a week alter and they've JSUT hired two people!), oh, and my brother is finally moving out into his own place! Yay!

So, yeah, lots been happening.

Also, sorry for the shortness of this chapter. I didn't want to go into too many details yet. Also, from this moment on you all (or, those of you who read the original) will notice some changes from here on out. Good changes though!

* * *

From that moment on Zim was careful not to take Dib for granted. Not that he had before, but he became very conscious of every little thing Dib did for him. He wouldn't always say thank you, but he was always thankful, and usually showed it with an extra kiss or some other sort of affectionate gesture.

Despite the humans not actually being able to do anything about Zim they showed their distrust and hatred more than ever. Leaving notes for him to find and throwing insults whenever they were feeling brave. In fact, Zim almost tore up the letter he found waiting for him on the floor of their room until he saw the official seal of what was known as The Membrane Council, stamped very officially on the front.

He opened it and read the very short message inside. It said simply:

_Irken Zim, your trial will be held tomorrow at noon. Come to Conference Room A. The Membrane Council._

Zim shivered. A trial. He was being put on trial again?

He crumbled up the letter and threw it onto the bed, bolting for the door when he ran into someone just outside of it.

"Hey, watch it." The human growled, sneering at Zim, but the irken ignored it, standing and bolting for the docking bay. He had to get out, he had to get away!

"Zim! Zim!" Dib called, catching his lover dashing down the hallway franticly and quickly followed.

Zim wouldn't stop; he almost made it before Dib's much longer legs allowed the human to catch him, grabbing his arms and yanking him to a standstill. The force of the pulling caused them both to fall back, Dib on his butt and Zim in his lap.

"I can't stay here!" Zim immediately burst out, struggling to get out of the human's grip. "They want to kill me! They'll erase me!"

"Zim, Zim calm down, what are you talking about?" Dib asked, holding fastly to his irken.

"I got a note! Your father is going to put me on trial because no one wants me here and I got into a fight! They were just waiting for that to happen so they could rip my pak off!" Zim blubbered, eyes wide with fear.

"You won't be killed for fighting, Zim." Dib said gently, moving one of his hands to the irkens face to try and make him focus. "Plus, you have me on your side, there's no way they'll be able to do anything to you."

"Damn right they won't!" Zim yelled. "Because I'm getting off this thing before they can!"

"You can't just run away." Dib said, looking unimpressed. "Plus, what about me?"

"You can come too!" Zim said with a wide smile, desperate to avoid the trial. "You'll love space Dib!"

Dib sighed, standing once Zim was done struggling and pulling the irken into a tight hug. "Zim," He said. "I hate to say this but there's no where we can go. Most of space is ruled by Irk and you're a wanted criminal to the empire. Please, it won't be that bad. With me by your side you'll get a slap on the wrist at the most."

Zim's breathing picked up but he nodded. "You promise you'll be there?" He clung to Dib as he gasped out his words. "Promise promise? Cross your heart and all that?"

Dib nodded, smiling at Zim's childlike worry. "I promise. Now come on, let's get some lunch and work out a good defense." He said, pulling back and holding Zim's hand as he led the irken back to their room.

* * *

Noon the next day found Dib and Zim in a conference room, facing a panel of five people, one of which was Membrane, sitting in the middle in a very elaborate chair, obviously playing the role of the judge.

"Do we all know why we're here?" The man to Membrane's right asked, looking at the irken, unimpressed by the calm way he sat there.

"Because I got into a fight?" Zim asked, feeling much like he was back in high school.

"Actually," Membrane said, surprising everyone. That was why they thought they were there. "I'm concerned about this relationship of your's Dib.

Dib sighed. He'd known this was coming, he just didn't think his father would pull something like this.

"I know you don't like it." He said. "But honestly I don't care. I like Zim, he likes me, that's all there is to it."

"Son, you know that's not WHY I'm concerned." Membrane said. Zim turned to Dib curiously, if it wasn't that Zim was an irken then what was it? Membrane continued, "You know I expect grandchildren from you. Zim is a male."

"Why are you doing this here, Dad?" Dib asked, giving his father a small glare. "Why couldn't you just talk to me about it? Why go through this whole trial charade?"

"Because I really needed to get your attention." Membrane pointed out. "I know how good you teenagers are at tuning us parents out. But not this time, think of the damage you're doing."

"Damage?" Dib asked, shaking his head. "Damage! I'd be doing more damage if I DID have a kid! All of those orphaned children!"

"You can't just adopt an heir!" Membrane insisted. "First off, none of them would be anywhere as brilliant as you! Second ,you won't be nearly as attached to them as you would be a real son!"

"Dad! I don't even want to adopt!" Dib shook his head. "I don't want kids yet, if at all, why are we even talking about this!?"

"Dib, I want you to end this silly relationship now!" Membrane commanded.

Dib stood, taking Zim's hand and pulling the confused irken up with him. "This conversation is over! The relationship is not ending! You don't make these choices for me!" And with that he left the room, pulling Zim with him.

They hurried off to the bedroom, neither saying a word, Dib's head reeling and Zim not wanting to agitate Dib further by pestering him with questions.

The moment they enter Dib had his lips on Zim's pressing him up against the wall by the door. He couldn't help it. He was needy for Zim, needy for the foreign way his skin felt and for that alien voice. He was needy for Zim to need him.

And Zim did. He was kissing back, one arm around Dib's shoulders, the other tugging on the hem of the human's shirt.

Dib pulled away from the kiss just as quickly as it started, staring into Zim's liquid ruby eyes, asking, "Can I have you?"

Zim looked confused at that question for a moment before it dawned on him. Dib didn't want a fight this time. He'd just fought with his dad and didn't want to fight Zim, but he did want to top, to be the one giving, to release his frustrations.

"Y-yeah," Zim relented, sighing and leaning forward to give the human's skin a lick. "You can have me."

Months past and the fighting only seemed to get worse. Anytime Dib had to interact with his father the subject was brought up and they always left each other on a sour note. Zim, in an attempt to be supportive, stayed out of the mess altogether, only mentioning anything about it when Dib needed reassurance.

"You don't need a kid." He would say, leaning against Dib's back and cuddling. "You have me, I'm immature enough to warrant taking care of." Or "I would worry for any grandchild of Membrane's. You came out all right but that's only because you have me!" Or "You're perfect Dib, because Zim is perfect and likes you. Just don't let him get to you because the only person whose opinion matters is Zim's!"

He also ended up beneath Dib during sex a lot, which tended to get much more rough and wild, not that Zim complained, it rather thrilled him, actually, he just wished Dib wouldn't use that as a way of venting.

"Dib," Zim moaned, cuddling up to the human in the middle of the night, sweating and hot. "Dib." He gave the human a small shove, trying to wake him up.

"Mmm, hm, what?" Dib mumbled turning over and just barley squinting his eyes open. "Nn, why are you wet?"

"I don't feel good." Zim groaned, attaching himself to the human rather needily.

This had Dib bolting up right in an instant. Zim was sick? Did irkens even get sick!? What could he do, the doctors didn't know anything about irken illness! "What do you mean?"

Zim kicked the covers off a little, trying to get cool. "My head hurts… and my stomach."

"Is there anything I can get you?" Dib asked, putting a hand to Zim's forehead. Irkens were naturally hotter than humans because of their paks, but this was bad, even for Zim.

"S-something sweet?" Zim asked, peering up at Dib lazily. "I think it might be low blood sugar."

"This is what happens when irkens' blood sugar gets low?" Dib asked, almost breathing a sigh of relief. Zim nodded and Dib smiled, saying, "Yes, yes I'll go get you something sweet." And with that he was up and rushing to get a piece of cake and soda or something just as unhealthy for humans.

Zim was right. He instantly felt better after eating sugary snacks, his fever vanishing and his head and stomach settling how they were supposed to. He snuggled Dib, a smile on his face. "Thanks."

Dib beamed, petting Zim's antennae back and kissing the top of his head. "I have to keep you around, I like you too much."

"Too much, really?" Zim teased, nibbling on Dib's neck a little.

"No, no, I take that back. WAY too much. It's almost unhealthy how much I like you."

Zim scoffed. "And I say you don't like me enough."

"Oh yeah?" Dib asked, smirking.

"Yeah." Zim said, looking up at Dib. "I don't believe you like me as much as you say you do."

"I say I do." Dib said, kissing Zim's cheek.

Zim smirked. "Prove it."


	7. Chapter 7

I REALLY hope I'm updating fast enough for you people. ^^; I feel like my writing has really started to slow down.

I have to confess something. I was getting rather bored with this story. I have so many other ideas in my head and I might start one of them as well. But this story just seemed to... eh, drift from my head very easily.

There are some reviewers, however, that really made me push to keep writing. They either made me feel guilty for even thinking about stopping this or they just showered me with good feelings that I just had to keep going. And I'm really glad I did because this chapter really sparked the storyline for me! Hope you enjoy!

Oh, and a quick question for my readers, I'd like to see your answer in reviews please.

Which of Jhonen's other works do you like? I'm thinking of doing a JTHM thing or maybe something with Squee. I'll probably end up doing the Squee one because that's my fave but I'd like to know what you think.

* * *

Weeks progressed and nothing seemed to be getting any better. People were bitter that Zim hadn't been punished yet for fighting with their vortian allies, Membrane would not let up on Dib having children, and Zim seemed to get more and more sick as time wore on.

It was increasingly bad in the morning, it seemed, Zim usually going all night without food, meaning that's where his blood sugar was at its lowest.

"Are you sure no one slipped you anything?" Dib asked worriedly, rubbing Zim's back.

"Positive." Zim said, leaned over almost half in the bed, forehead touching him knees in an attempt to keep the nausea down. "It's just… low blood sugar. That's it. I'll be fine."

"But it's not like you're eating less than normal. Zim, I'm worried." Dib pestered, kissing the back of the irken's neck.

"Yeah, but as long as I can still have sex you're fine, right?" Zim asked under his breath. Instantly though he regretted that, sitting up quick, in time to see Dib's expression drop and a hurt look taking the place of a worried one.

"What was that for?" Dib asked, pulling back a little.

Zim shook his head. "I didn't mean that I really didn't mean that! I don't even know where that came from!" He was doing one-eighty's, unable, it seemed, to control what was coming out of his mouth. Not that he was ever good at controlling it before, but it was almost like a word vomit.

And, just as an 'I'm sorry' was about to spew forth something else erupted from him. Something that much resembled the waffles he'd eaten just an hour ago.

"Zim!" Dib shouted in worry, hand moving once more to Zim's back as he threw up all over the bed. "Zim you're sick! Something's wrong!"

Zim shook his head, unable to say anything around his throat clenching and his stomach trying to push out more than what was actually occupying it. He wasn't sick, he couldn't be sick, irkens didn't GET sick!

* * *

"Please, you're the only one I can turn to! Something's wrong!" Dib exclaimed, shoulders almost shaking.

"No, I can't." The vortian before him said. This one was just a little shorter that a ten year old with bright green eyes and pale, almost white skin. She was different from the others in that she was the only one Dib felt was even remotely helpful. She was in the medical profession before being sold into slavery and was doing all she could to learn human biology and anatomy. She said it was actually easy because humans were remarkably similar to irkens, which, she was well trained in.

"PLEASE, Nils. He's getting worse and worse." Dib pleaded. "He says it's just low blood sugar but-"

"Then that's probably what it is!" Nils shouted. "Dib, I can't help you. I like you, but I refuse to help Zim. He's dangerous to this mission. You know if his pak wasn't completely locked the Tallest would easily be able to track him right to us!? Not to mention that anyone he's loyal to ends up hurt. Just look at those scratches on your face!"

"That was an accident!" Dib defended quickly.

"Yeah, and so was the death of the previous two Tallests, along with millions of his fellow irkens. He's a nightmare!" Nils pointed out.

Dib sighed and slumped to the stool. "He's not like that anymore. He's calmed down. Please. He's so sick, no matter how much sugar we give him he just gets worse. He's in almost constant pain and he refuses to admit that something might be wrong. Please just have a look?"

Nils glared at Dib a moment before sighing and nodding, saying, "Fine, bring him to me, I'll take a look at that irken for you. But I can't promise anything. Irkens don't get sick."

Dib nodded with a smile and gave Nils a hug before running off to get his irken.

Zim almost refused. Nils was friends with the other vortians, wasn't she? But Dib talked him into it, eventually just carrying the sick green creature to the med ward on his back.

"Oh relax." Nils said as she went about the med wad, getting what she needed. Zim just glared at her, looking suspiciously around. "We're just going to run a few scans, see if anything in that evil spooch of yours is damaged."

Zim stuck his tongue out when Nils back was turned, but other than that didn't say or do anything. She brought over an all but obsolete sonogram machine. It was the most the humans had, and it would have to do for the vortian since she didn't have access to any of her more advanced equipment. She put the thing to Zim's stomach.

Zim kept his eyes on the monitor, just as the vortian did.

"What's that?" She asked, pointed to a little round thing attached to Zim's squeedily spooch, just below the stomach.

Zim squinted his eyes at it before they widened in shock. He quickly composed himself though. "Nothing… scar tissue."

"You've been stabbed?" Nils asked, narrowing an eye at Zim. "Who could keep you still long enough?"

Zim turned his head to glare at Dib a little.

"Well, I don't see anything that could be causing any sort of pain." Nils said with a sigh, hopping from her stool. "Or the sickness. But I would like to take some blood work, just in ca-"

Zim quickly cut her off, hopping form the bed. "You know what? I'm feeling better. It's probably because it's lunch time, I could use some lunch, tacos are good!" He rambled, smiling widely at Dib.

Dib frowned or a moment, saying, "You can't eat tacos, they're made with meat."

"Did I say tacos?" Zim asked. "I meant nachos. Come on, let's get some nachos!"

"Zim, I really think we should do some-…" Again, Nils was cut off.

"Blood work, yeah, later!" Zim called, wrapping his arms around Dib's arm and dragging him out of the med ward.

All that day Zim had been acting funny, either avoiding the subject of him being sick, him trying not to act sick, or him stuffing his mouth with food so he was unable to talk about it.

* * *

"Gosh I'm tired!" Zim said a little louder than was needed when Dib tried to bring the subject up again.

"Gosh?" Dib asked, raising a brow. "Did you really just say 'gosh'?"

"Gosh, you're repetitive." Zim said, smirking at Dib. "Relax, I'm fine, you're fine, we're both fine, can we just get some sleep?" He asked, holding his hands out, a demand for cuddles.

Dib sighed and laid down next to Zim, snuggling up to the alien. "You're weird." He said, his eyes slipping closed. "Just… as long as you're ok. I worry about you."

Zim frowned a little, resting his head on top of the human's as he cuddled back, saying, "I'm fine Dib. Don't you worry about a thing."

Zim waited until Dib fell asleep before prying himself from the human's arms. He had to get out! He had to get out now! There was no way he could let Dib find out!

He put some clothes on and packed some sweets before slinking out into the hall. Dib didn't need this, he didn't need this kind of hassle, not from Zim! The irken had caused enough problems in Dib's life, it seemed.

He quickly snuck his way into the docking bay, needing to duck down random hall ways and take detours and eventually had to crawl the last twenty or so yards through the air vents. He made it in though and snuck over to his ship, which hadn't, to his knowledge, been messed with too much, thanks to the humans want for some working irken technologies. He climbed aboard and sluggishly began his take off. He didn't want to leave. He hated it at the Membrane space station, he really did but he wanted to be with Dib.

"I should be selfish!" Zim said, almost canceling the take off. "I should be selfish and stay! Make him put up with the trouble!" He then sighed and shook his head. No, he couldn't do that to Dib. He'd been arguing with his father constantly about not wanting a child… he couldn't make Dib put up with a half irken one! He couldn't make Dib take care of a pregnant Zim either! No one but the Tallests deserved that!

Not that Zim could go to them either. He had only one choice and that one was only slightly better than the other two.

Finally though he took off, slipping out the shuttle doors with no problems. No one really cared if anyone left, it was only getting in that they were worried about.

Zim flew for a few hours before getting to empire territory. He just hoped no one noticed him before he could make it to an Irken planet. There had to be some back alley abortionist or something!

"Then I can go back to Dib." He said, sighing.

A few more hours of drifting found Zim close to Foodcourtia. He could almost smell the deep fried treats of doom all the way out here, but he took comfort in it, knowing he was closer to his goal. He jumped as a signal flared up on his monitor and he quickly pulled up the ship's schematics, trying to figure out what was wrong.

"Damn it!" He yelled. When his ship had been repaired they'd messed with the engine systems. That and he was low on fuel, dangerously low!

He pulled up a map of the area quickly, hoping there was a safe place he could stop and get some fuel, but the only habitable planets within range were Foodcourtia, Judgmentia, and a little back alley planet called Clariala that wasn't safe for any irken to land on. It was a horrible humid planet, infested with bugs that size of voot runners and monsters that could eat an irken in one bite.

Which one could he risk though? On one hand the Foodening was taking place. If he landed there he'd be stuck there for a little less than twenty years. Once he was there no one would be able to get at him until it was over, though of course they'd be waiting to ambush him the moment he made his escape, possible the whole armada would wait for him to get off that planet.

On the other hand there was Judgmentia. Chances were no one would think of looking for him there and if he was lucky he'd be able to fuel up there and could easily be on his way before he was even noticed. On the other hand if an Existence Evaluation was going on then the Tallest would be there, along with an almost planet full of guards there to keep them safe. He would be bound to be noticed, though so far that sounded a whole lot better than Foodcourtia.

Yes, he decided he'd land on Judgmentia. Even if he was caught he could always just escape again. It would be easy! It always was.

"Irk, why don't we just kill him already, why bother with the whole trial nonsense for someone this old?" Purple asked, tongue poking out in disgust at the wrinkled, grey form facing the Control Brains for his Evaluation.

"I know, he'll probably fall over dead the moment the Brains make their ruling." Red said with a small laugh, though trying to keep his voice down. They were supposed to be paying attention, but no one really cared. This old irken was well decorated and had fought in many a battle, sure, but for the past fifty year's he'd sat behind a desk filling out paper work and sending OTHERS into battle He'd lived out his usefulness and his body had all but given up. He'd get a new body if the Brains deemed him worthy but everyone knew they'd rule to have him absorbed into the collective of other irken consciousness.

Purple chuckled as him and Red continued passing forth jokes at the older irken's expense when one of their guards interrupted, saluting respectfully. "Sir's , I've just been told that a ship has entered this sector of the atmosphere."

"But that's supposed to be locked down." Purple said, looking confused. "A trial's going on!"

"They must have snuck through with an emergency patch. Just go blow them up." Red said, waving a hand before continuing on with another joke.

The guard nodded and relayed the message into a communicator on his wrist.

Zim pulled into a fueling station, running his credits into the system so his ship could be refueling while he hopped out to look at the damage.

He opened the engine compartment and immediately frowned. The humans had all but torn the whole thing apart! No wonder it was running like crap!

"This will take hours to fix." He grumbled, putting a knee to the voot to stabilize himself as he all but climbed into the engine compartment.

As the ship fueled up Zim went about repairing what he could with just his hands, reconnecting wires that had been mixed up, tightening connections, twisting knobs, and scowling as he got his hands dirty and spilt engine gunk.

"FREEZE!" Came a bark from behind Zim, making him gasp and jump, his head hitting the roof of the engine compartment hard.

"Shit, what!?" He barked back, turning and putting a hand to his head.

"I said freeze! That means 'don't move'! Not 'turn around and look at me!'" A soldier said, laser pointed at Zim. There was a group of three there, wearing the armor of the Tallests' personal guards.

Wait, then that meant, "The Tallest are here?" Zim asked, pulling his hand down to look at it and see if he was bleeding.

"Are you stupid, you're still moving!" The soldier yelled.

"Then shoot me!" Zim yelled back, turning quickly to climb over his ship and start his escape. But his command was followed swiftly and expertly, the middle soldier shooting him in the back of the knee, sending him toppling to the ground.

"Damn it," He breathed, trying to get up but the pain was too horrible. If it was just his leg or even his ankle he'd have been fine, he could have hobbled to safety. But with the back of his knee injured like that he couldn't move that joint at all without intense pain shooting all up and down his leg and skin tearing horribly with the movement.

"Boys, we'll be getting a big raise today!" The middle soldier said, walking over and hulling Zim up to his feet, making him cry out in pain. "We've just captured the traitor Zim!" The other two chuckled and one moved to the other side of Zim, both soldiers holding him up as they dragged him to what Zim could only picture as his doom.

Zim was detained in a fortress like building, his hands shackled not once, but twice behind his back, along with his feet. His leg had gone numb hours ago with pain killers that a medic had so kindly given him hours ago, one of the side effects being that his vision went blurry from the dizziness, which made him want to puke.

He leaned over in the chair, folding himself in half as he tried to hold himself back, even shutting his eyes to prevent the blurriness from affecting his stomach. That just seemed to make it worse though as the room started to feel like it was spinning, like when you close your eyes on a roller coaster.

He heard the door open and closed but he didn't dare look up from his pants. When he didn't hear any footsteps he could only assume that either the person that walked it was either struck dumb at the sight of Zim all but curled up in the fetal position, or it was the Tallest.

"So, Zim. We spend a little over a year looking for you and you just deliver yourself to us in the end?" Red asked, sounding as superior as ever.

Purple burst out laughing, unable to keep a serious tune as he asked, "Are you some kind of retarded smeet!? How stupid can one defect be!?"

Zim didn't dare open his mouth.

Red's smirk could be heard in his voice, "Did he do us a favor and die?"

Purple sounded disappointed as he pointed out. "No, look, he's still breathing." He then floated over and gave Zim's back a poke.

Zim gave a sick groan, "Shit… don't do that." He mumbled, the skin around the poked site was now crawling and itching with the effects of the drugs, making him want to throw up more. Red grinned evilly and floated over as well, giving Zim's back a poke as well.

"What's the matter, ZIM? Don't like being touched?" He asked.

"Stoooop," He groaned once more, but Red just poked him more, Purple soon following suit.

Breathing got hard as the Tallests teased and tormented him and he tried to keep himself back but in the end he sat up and gave a dry heave of warning. After that though he could feel his stomach clenching and in order to avoid instant death he didn't turn to either one of his sides, the Tallests being there. Instead he tried to lean as far forward as he could as he threw up, wanting to avoid hitting his knees with his half digested food. His efforts only resulted in him falling off the chair.

The Tallests backed up quickly, eyes wide and they stared for a moment as Zim landed in a puddle of his own vomit before breaking out into laughter.

"I don't know what that medic gave you but we MUST give him a raise!" Purple laughed, smacking Red on the back.

Zim rolled over, looking like he was gonna be sick again, but that was just from how disgusted he was.

"I'm sick." He mumbled, pulling at his shackles and twisting his legs, trying to push himself up.

"Sick?" Red asked, crossing his arms. "Irkens don't GET sick."

Zim scowled. "Shut up!" He yelled, feeling his anger instantly flare. "If I wasn't sick I wouldn't FUCKING be here! I would have stayed out of irken territory!"

The Tallests instantly shut up. Zim- Zim had just cussed at them! And what's more, his logic made perfect sense.

Red snapped out of his shock first, scowling. "You're eager to face the brains aren't you?"

Purple crossed his arms and glared. "I think he wants to die, Red."

Zim smirked then. Oh how he smirked. He smirked in that oh-so-superior way that people seemed to always smirk at him.

"You can't kill me." He said with confidence. "I'm pregnant."

Red and Purple looked at each other in confusion. Pregnant, no way. Males didn't get pregnant.

But then, irkens didn't get sick, but clearly there was something wrong with Zim.

Zim watched the Tallests, almost able to hear the wheels in their heads turning. Oddly enough the very thing that landed him in the Tallests' grasp was the very thing that would save him. The Tallests wouldn't get rid of him if he was pregnant because irken scientists were still trying to find a way for their race to reproduce naturally.

The irken race had lost that capability millennias ago. Their race used to be like any other, like the vortians and even humans. Technologically they had been inferior, but they thrived, like ants. They were fantastic engineers and that's why some races believed that the Control Brains picked them to help in their plans to dominate the universe.

Once technology was added into the mix things seemed to change. They were given paks and slowly they began to need them just to survive. Their children began to be born dead, and would need a pak and the shock to bring them to life. Of course at first this turned out to be rather helpful, because that meant that no children were lost in child birth and the population sky rocketed. But then females were steadily losing the ability to give birth, and eventually the males weren't even able to lay their eggs. The whole population became barren. That's when the race had to turn to genetically engineering their young. Many think this was a good thing, because that meant superior breeding, which meant that there were no birth defects to get in the way of universal domination.

But there is still the thought in the backs of everyone's heads. 'Just in case. We need to know, just in case.'

"I don't believe you!" Purple said loudly, crossing his arms.

"Run a scan then. You'll see it. An egg pouch attached to my lower spooch." Zim challenged.

"Huh-uh." Purple said, shaking his head. "You have some kind of plan. I know it. You have a plan to escape that involves us taking you to the med bay."

Red rolled his eyes at Purple's paranoia and went over to a communicator on the wall. "Someone send a medic down here with a scanner immediately."

"My Tallest…." The medic said, amazed as he stared at the picture on the scanner. "There it is. H-he's pregnant."

Zim smirked as he watched the Tallest' face contorted into odd shapes as they experienced denial, shock, fear, then anger. He thought that if they decided to kill him now, he'd probably die happy. But they weren't going to kill him. They were going to keep him alive, they HAD to.

* * *

YAY! UPDATE! Alright!

Um, just a heads up, it seems uploading things here in FF.N likes to take away my extra spaces for skipping, so if things seem to flow weird let me kno and I slide a break line in there for better reading.

Also, jsut so you know, we're coming up to the point where chapters won't be free anymore. I'm gonna start asking for a reasonable amount of people to review so that I know you still want this story. I've owed only up to chapter eight, after that I don't want to see any slides in my reviews. That will make me a very unhappy Dev.


	8. Chapter 8

YAY CHAPTER EIGHT!

Ok, opening thoughts, um, this chapter might seem a little rushed. A lot of time passes here, and a lot of time will be passing in the next chapter as well. That's not because I'm rushing, like in the previous version of this fic, but because, just, not a lot happens between certain points of time and I'd rather skip them than fill them with drivvle.

Also, I'm SO SORRY CJ! I ahevn't been acknowledging your betaing! I feel like a bad person!

Last note. This will be the last chapter you see Dib in for a while. For those of you who have read the first version of this fic, you know why, for those of you who haven't, you'll find out. Showing you what's happening with him after this point would ruin the surprise later.

* * *

Zim was taken aboard the Massive and given a more thorough look over. There had been a great deal of stress laid upon Zim, apparently, and his body didn't seem to be taking it well, so at the advice of the doctors Zim was given a luxurious room to stay in. The room came complete with a bigger than needed bed, a sofa with many comfy cushions, a matching chair that could either rock or not, the setting controlled by a lever on the side, a small mini fridge, and lighting fixtures everywhere that were more for decoration than anything, along with other bedroom furniture.

This was, of course, all for show. This was an ambassador's suite, for when the Tallests had those important meetings with other races. Not that they had many of those so there weren't any excuses as to why Zim couldn't relax there.

Zim, of course, loved every minute of this arrangement. This was what he'd wanted all along. Some respect, some sort of fine treatment. Of course it wasn't really him that the Tallests were concerned about, it was the baby, but DAMNIT Zim couldn't seem to wipe that smile off his face!

Though he was, naturally, worried. He knew he'd be disposed of once the baby was born, and for another thing he needed to get back to Dib before then! No doubt the human was already worrying. But Zim was being shown around the ship and followed by a procession of guards. He'd have to escape some other time.

Once everything had been arranged Zim was put in his room and locked in there. Guards were positioned outside of the door and several teams of them patrolled the hall ways. Apparently the Tallests wanted to be sure the room was getting some use.

Zim paced anxiously. There was no way, no way he would make it three months like this. Locked in a room with nothing to do but think and eat. Not that either of those were bad things, he was just a usually hyperactive creature, and it's usually when someone tried to keep him secluded that bad things happened (Like Horrible Painful Overload Day One.)

Zim moved to lie on the overly plush bed, staring at the ceiling. Irken architecture was not as flawed as humans', so there were no vents he could crawl through or any cranny like that period.

"This is quite the predicament you're in, Zim." He said to himself before sitting up. He stared at the door, and stared at it some more before going over and pounding on it.

"I'm hungry!" He yelled as though angry, which he was, but not because of his stomach. "My blood sugar get's low really easy with a parasite living in my stomach!"

One of the guards outside could be heard grumbling to the other as he marched off to go get the whiney irken some food.

Zim smirked. He kneeled down and began to hack the keypad that was now in front of his face. He put in the most likely sequences of random numbers, getting the door to swish open for him in four minutes.

He grinned victoriously as this caught the remaining guard by surprise.

The slightly smaller irken jumped and turned to raise his shocky stick at Zim, but the taller was quick to point out, through use of his pointer finger, that he was pregnant, and when the guard began to hesitate he kicked the smaller in the face before dashing down the hall.

It didn't take very long for the guards that were on patrol to apprehend him.

"That's ok." Zim thought to himself with a grin as he was escorted back to his room. "That was just a trial run."

* * *

Dib woke up that morning with a horrible sinking feeling. That feeling came from the fact that he'd woken himself up, instead of being woken up an hour ago to his irken lover bent double and groaning from stomach pains.

The human sat up quickly and looked at the bed next to him, then around. There… was no alien lover. No Zim.

In a panic Dib leaped from bed and checked the bathroom, then his sister's room (this only ended with her waking up and throwing something at him.)

He checked the cafeteria, the labs, the med bay. Zim couldn't be found.

"DAD!" Dib called, running into the special Membrane Labs section of the space station. "Dad! Zim's missing I can't find him any-"

"Anywhere?" Membrane asked, almost looking like he wasn't paying attention. "On the station."

"What?" Dib asked, looking around confused. That's when it dawned on him. "What did you do!?"

"Me? Nothing." Membrane finally turned to his son, giving the boy his full attention. "He left."

Dib paused to let this information sink in. "Left? Like, just-…?"

"He left your room, snuck into the docking bay (though sneak is a term I use loosely) and took his ship and left." Membrane explained.

"No!" Dib shouted, shaking his head. That couldn't be true, Zim wouldn't just leave him! "You're lying! Why would you do that!?"

"I'm not lying." Membrane said in a commanding tone. "Go check the security feeds yourself."

Dib's form shook. Why would Zim leave? Why!? They had something good! Sure he was sick now but-….

Dib gasped and ran to find Nils.

"Nils! NILS!" He cried loudly, banging on the door to her room.

There was a sound of quiet rustling behind the door and a sharp squeak accompanied the sound of a trip. Finally though she made it to the door, looking annoyed, tired, but in one piece.

"Wha- what?" She mumbled, rubbing a tired eye.

"Nils, I need to see the sonogram again. Whatever it is, was, whatever it was that Zim was sick with… we'd found it but… he ran off. I think he went back to the Empire to have it taken care of!" Dib explained, voice pleading.

"Good," She mumbled, glaring slightly. "He's out of our hair, so to speak."

"Nils!" Dib pleaded. "You have to help me! We have to figure out what was wrong with Zim!"

"No," She said, her mouth curving into a deep frown. "Look, I said I'd take a look, but I didn't see anything. Zim is just doing what Zim does. Being unfailingly loyal to the Tallest at the expense of those around him. It's his MO. I tried to warn you, but you wouldn't listen. Now you have to deal with this broken heart of yours."

"Nils, PLEASSE. They'll kill him!" Dib exclaimed. He was being so loud though that people were starting to peak their heads out of their rooms.

"Good!" Someone shouted, but they didn't get time to say anything else as Dib whirled on them and clocked them in the eye, not even caring who it was. He then quickly turned back to Nils.

"I'll do ANYthing!"

Nils stared at Dib, mouth agape before scowling and saying, "Fine. But if anything comes around that looks like even remotely good technology I want it. I wasn't trained for this obsolete technology of yours."

"Deal!" Dib said, suddenly grinning like a mad man. He waited for her to get dressed as the crowd began to creep back into their rooms, shooting Dib glares, one of which was housed by a black eye.

* * *

Zim leaned his head against the wall to his right as he sat at a small table that had been provided for him in his room, not touching the food in front of him. He'd been trapped in that room for a month. He wasn't even let out for the bathroom, being that there was one attached to the room. Even the doctors came to HIM when it was time for a checkup and Zim thought he was going to go insane!

Well, more insane.

And what of Dib?

Zim's heart gave a lurch. His human… he probably hated him.

'I should have left a note.' He thought to himself. 'I should have left something.'

Or maybe he just shouldn't have left? That thought crossed his mind a few times, but he always came back to the same conclusion. No, he had to leave. Dib didn't want a child, so he couldn't force that on the human.

* * *

One month, two months. Zim counted on his fingers. How long had he been pregnant now? Almost three months? It should be close to being born at this point, right? Or… laid was a much more accurate description of how irkens gave birth. They laid pouches of usually two or three eggs when their body could no long house them, and then they were separated into their own incubation tubes and were hatched in there, then born (born being the name for the process in which the computer cracks open their incubation tube and they are fitted with a pak.)

According to the doctor at that point Zim's egg pouch only contained one egg, which was rather good for Zim, being that the doctors had to cut him open and pull the egg pouch out. The smaller the hole, the better it would be for Zim.

He felt at his stomach as he ate, idly chewing some kind of goop that he was provided with. It tasted nasty but was supposedly full of nutrition. There was something odd about the way his stomach felt, like, there was something pushing against it from the inside. He was pretty sure that wasn't supposed to happen but he ignored it, all but for the occasional rub, just to make sure it wasn't a tumor or something.

* * *

The third month marker came and went and since then Zim had tried to escape five times. He'd manipulated the guards to try and sneak out twice, tried to break through the bathroom walls, only to end up in an actual ambassador's room (to his credit Zim knew that was a stupid idea, he was just desperate. They were both provided new rooms for Zim's effort.) And he'd even almost gotten the doctor's to unlock the door for him a couple of times, but, in the end, he always ended up back behind a door and guards.

But something was wrong; him and the doctors all knew it. Three months was the maximum times something like that should last. All the tests showed that both Zim and the smeet were healthy, and yet something was wrong and Zim should have gone into the irken equivalent of labor by that point!

When five months came around the doctors were considering inducing their own labor on Zim and making the smeet be laid. After all, Zim was male, maybe his body just wasn't telling him it was time like female bodies did.

They were horrified when, as they were giving serious thought to it, Zim was suddenly wracked with pain.

"Shit! What's happening!?" He cried, clutching at his stomach, face screwed up in intense pain. One of the doctors quickly pulled up a scanner and began to examine Zim's stomach.

"It-it's hatching!" He cried, moving so the other doctors could see as well.

In the egg pouch was a round, solid object, cracked and broken in some areas. Shell pieces, showing up bright on the scanner, were digging into the egg pouch and around organs; causing Zim's pain and more were breaking off.

"How is this possible!?" One cried.

"I don't know, I don't know!"

"Should we get Zim to surgery!?"

"No, no, we can't do that! If we expose the smeet too soon-!"

Voices ran together as more of the egg broke and dug into sensitive organs. After an egg is laid and incubated the liquid in the tube was supposed to dissolve the shell, since the smeet, not being alive yet, couldn't break through it themselves.

"It's alive." Zim gasped, sitting up slightly from the bed. "It's breaking through the shell, it's alive!"

The doctors all paused and looked back at the monitor. He was right. There was a little, three clawed fist sticking out through the shell, clawing at it and trying to get out.

"There's nothing for it then." One said. "We can't even get into there to remove the shell pieces. It's alive but it's not fully developed."

"But it HURTS!" Zim protested.

"Sorry, but the smeet comes first." Another doctor argued. "We will, however, give you something for the pain. Your body will take care of the fragments on its own."

Zim gave a groan as one doctor stuck him in the arm with more pain killers. These weren't the dizzying kind, he was thankful to learn, but they still made him feel sick.

* * *

Two more months passed and Zim's belly grew an abnormal amount for just a short period of time. Of course, any amount of weight gain was weird to a race who's health food was sugary sweets, but this was a degree of unconventional that made even Zim worry.

He'd grown at least five inches around the waist, but just forward, leaving him with ugly trails of stretch marks because his skin was not meant to stretch like that. The baby, apparently, kept growing in the irken tummy. Not by much, but by enough that every movement the smeety made as noticeable as if Zim was holding the thing in his arms.

Zim sat on the counter in the rather large bathroom he was provided with, running a marker over his stomach boredly. He had nothing better to do, and he found the marker in the nightstand drawer.

Boredom+marker+pregnant belly= a weird array of drawings and chemical formulas.

The door to the adjoining room swished open and Zim gasped, throwing the marker into the shower quickly and pulling his shirt down over his stomach.

"Zim!?" Barked the familiar voice of Tallest Red as he floated around the room, looking for him.

Zim tripped over himself getting out of the bathroom and asking, "What!?"

Purple almost said something about Zim's lack of salute when he realized he didn't care. As long as the defect was getting what he deserved after they got his smeet.

"How did that last check up go?" Red asked, almost like he was concerned. Which he was, just not about Zim.

Zim scowled. "Fine, fine. No damage was done to the smeet from the hatching and the shell fragments have all worked their way out of my system, causing no damage to me, meaning no damage to the smeet."

Zim hesitated before adding, "You could have asked the doctors this."

"Oh we did." Red said with a small smirk, Purple joining him when he realized what his partner was referring to.

Zim looked confused. "What?"

"We'd like you to go to the med bay now." Purple said, steepling his fingers.

Zim shook his head. "Why?"

"Just do so." Red commanded. "Or we'll have you dragged there."

Zim was lead to the med bay and the doctor pulled a scanner out, humming as he looked the smeety over.

"Yes, it should be fine."

"What!?" Zim suddenly snapped. "What should be fine?"

"I'll start the procedure." The doctor told Red and Purple, ignoring Zim as he was told to do.

Zim looked around in panic.

"You see Zim." Red began."We don't like you… pretty much at all. So we decided to birth the smeet a LITTLE prematurely. That way we can get rid of you faster."

Zim stared at his Tallests a moment before yelling obscene things at them. He quickly had to be restrained and tied down to the bed when he tried to lunge at the two tall leaders.

"You're going to kill me! You're just going to take what you want from me then kill me! It's not fair! You can't do this! I won't be erased!"

"Nighty, night." Purple said gleefully as a wire was hooked up to Zim's pak and he was sent into a dreamless sleep.

* * *

When Zim woke up he was cold, and starving, and uncomfortable. His antennae twitched against metal and he rolled over to see that he'd been lying on a floor in the prison hold. His whole body was in pain, but he could tell most of it was centered around his torso.

Zim's eyes widened and he sat upright and pulled his shirt up to see a line of paste, holding together his skin from just below his ribs, down to almost his hip on his right side. The smeet! They've taken the smeet!

'Wait, calm down, that's good, right?' He thought to himself, leaning his back against the wall and pulling his knees up. 'You wanted to get rid of it anyway. Now you can go back to Dib!'

But something about this just wasn't right. He'd heard of irken mother's defecting sometimes, wanting to keep their child, like some old fashioned religious.

Zim shook his head. He was being stupid, he didn't need the smeet. Just Dib, all the irken needed was Dib.

* * *

"For crying out loud!" Red yelled over the small and yet incredibly noisy smeet. They hadn't been able to do any sort of research on the young irken because it kept crying these horrible stinging acid tears and doing just anything in it power to hinder their examination. They couldn't even fit it was a pak until they did some testing, but it wouldn't let them!

The smeet, a boy, it was discovered, cried continuously, and in the three days it was alive it wouldn't eat anything. And what was worse it looked almost exactly like Zim, but with bright orange eyes, so it was all either Tallest could do not to be tempted to kill it!

"Shut him up!" I don't care if you have to force feed him! Just make it stop crying!" Purple wailed, almost on the verge of sobbing himself.

"Nothing's working!" The caretaker cried, bouncing the smeet on her lap. She was in charge of taking care of the smeet for his special training, but nothing she was doing seemed to make him feel better.

"It's a mixed breed!" A doctor yelled. "Maybe-" He gulped audibly. "Maybe Zim would know enough of the other race to know what it needs!"

"Zim!" Red shouted, smashing his gauntlet into a wall and denting it. He hesitated a moment before yelling, "FINE! Go get him!"

* * *

Zim was left alone, completely alone for three days, and the entire time a longing grew in him. Not just for food, which he was deprived of. But, thoughts began to float through his head. What did it look like? What was its gender? Was he at all human?

He gasped as he was jerked from his thoughts with the door slamming open and one of the doctors ran up to his cell.

"You!" Zim hissed, throwing himself at the bars of his cell. "You took my smeet away!"

"Shush, shush," The doctor said, lowering his voice to try and make Zim listen. "Look, something's wrong with the smeet. We need to know what race the other parent was."

Zim scowled. "I'm not telling you! Not unless you let me see the smeet!"

The doctor, to Zim's surprise, nodding and had the guard unlock the cell. Slowly the doctor lead Zim to the Tallests' lounge, where the smeet and his caretaker and the Tallests were all hanging out, trying to make the smeet eat something.

The moment he saw his crying smeety… boy, Zim lunged, snatching him from the arms of the pretty female caretaker.

"What's wrong with you people!?" He yelled, this had everyone shutting up, including the smeet, who didn't make any noise other than little hiccupping whimpers. "You can't just take a smeet away from its birther like that! Serves you right! Having to deal with all that crying!"

The baby babbled something, which only had Zim responding with an, "I know! Stupid people!"

The Tallests gave each other quick glance as Zim sat himself down and began to feed the smeet the food that the caretaker had tried to give him, the smeet eagerly accepting the mush, barely coordinated enough to open his mouth, much less feed himself.

It was astonishing for any irken to watch. At every little thing the smeet did Zim's antennae would perk and he'd smile, and visa verse. They were enamored with each other and the mighty leaders of the irken race were at a loss as to what to do.

"We can't let him stay Red, we can't!" Purple whined softly, under his voice.

"We have to! This could save our race!" Red argued.

"No, our race is fine! I'm more worried about our LIVES!"

"We're the Tallests! We're supposed to worry about our race!"

"You worry about the race! I'm not gonna let him kill us!"

"Purple, you're being paranoid again. Look, it's just until the smeet understands that we can be friends too. Then you can kill him yourself!"

Purple hesitated. "Really?"

"Yes, really." Red said, crossing his arms.

Purple thought about this a moment before sighing and saying, "Fiiiiine."

"Good." Red said, walking over to Zim with a wide grin and announcing, "GOOD NEWS!"

* * *

Most breaks in this chapter because FF.N does not support extra spaces. -_- Sad, but true.


	9. Chapter 9

Oh gosh I'm SO SORRY you guys. I promised you this, like, weeks ago and I've more than gotten enough reviews (thank you all so much!) to inspire me to write, but things have just been... well, hell really.

First off, I'd liek to say I hate this chapter... I really do, it's begining to look like the old story and that bothers me. This chapter may get a re-write later, I mostly just wanted to get the facts to you as quick as possible. All in all though this chapter sucks, really I just went trhough with spell check because I didn't want to re-read it and I didn't have a beta so there are LOADS of mistakes I'm sure.

Also, I wanted to hurry with this because I REALLY want to get to the chapters beyond! I'm just as eager as I'm sure all you all out there are to see Zim and Dib reunited!

Family matters will be slowing down my writing a little though. My neice and nephew just moved to another state and my mom isn't dealing with it well (we're all worried, they aren't exactly given the atteniton they need with their mother and step family.) So I probably won't be in the house as often as I would need for quick updates.

Another update that may infulence writing speed. I'm trying to start college. I dont have enough money to go full time, but I'm still going to be taking some classes, so that will cut into my hobby time.

YAY for college though right!? I honestly can't wait! Teaching Degree FTW!

* * *

Zim was reinstated into the irken race as 'caretaker'. This was a position mostly given to females, and their job usually included watching over the smeets and their education, making sure they got their nutrients on time, measured them, and trained them. The reason females mostly did it was because, well, they looked better in the uniform.

Zim was to be his smeet's caretaker alone though because the Tallest did not want him anywhere near their other soldiers. The only reason they were even letting him live at that point was because the half breed didn't seem to be able to separate from him.

Over the next couple days a few things were figured out about the smeet. It was impervious to the acid H2O, it had an astounding growth rate, and its skin had an odd pigment mixed in with the green. Not that anyone could tell this just from looking, but the green of its skin, when under a microscope, was off green, making it look darker from farther away.

It was definite that Zim's child would be standing out in a crowd.

There were a few rules that came with Zim's new position, however.

First, Zim was not to be involved in the education of his smeet. That would be the Tallests' job. They wanted to teach him of the irken ways personally.

Second, Zim was not to go anywhere that housed any chemicals or engineering equipment unless escorted by a high ranking guard.

Last, He was not to tell the smeet of their relation. This had Zim's antennae wilting. The other two he figured he could handle. But the smeet couldn't know who Zim really was?

"Of course not. That would create an unnecessary bound." Tallest Red had said. "Can you imagine if anything were to happen to you? He would be devastated. Nope, better off if he doesn't know."

"Yeah," Purple said with a small laugh as he chowed down on some chips. "Besides, who would want you for a mother anyway? You're the laughing stock of the entire planet. You're a traitor!"

Zim frowned, but they were right. So he agreed to all of the conditions and he was allowed to raise his smeet.

* * *

The first few months of life for Lix (that's what the smeet ended up named) were a learning experience… for everyone. Once he had a pak he became a little too independent for both Zim and the Tallest, and would often wander off when they weren't paying attention.

Of course he never got very far. His muscles were very human in nature and weren't strong enough in his first few months of life to allow him to walk, so despite the pak he had to crawl everywhere until he was strong enough to walk.

His personality, it was quickly discovered, was very much like his mother's. Or so the Tallest thought, Zim was convince Lix was more like Dib than himself. Zim was, admittedly, very single minded, and while he did show a lot of interest in a lot of different things, like Dib, he wasn't able to multitask very well. Lix had a million things he found interest in and would often be trying several of them all at once. Like he would tinker with a gadget while reading up on Invader files and medical reports with a schematic of one of the main control brain fortresses off to the side somewhere.

While Lix was very irken he had some very human habits. Like, for a while Zim was allowed to keep the nice room he'd been staying in, simply for the fact that Lix had to spend the night with him. He would wake up in the middle of the night hungry or thirsty, or he would have to go to the bathroom, and Zim had to help him with all of these things. This led to nights of almost no sleep for the irken, but deep in his exhausted brain he just enjoyed the fact that Lix needed him and was more than glad to help his offspring.

The Tallest seemed to enjoy Lix as well. He was a very quick learner, despite how often his attention wandered. They didn't really care though, as long as Lix turned out to be less destructive than his mother.

* * *

Five years flew by much too quickly for Zim. He'd thought about escape a few times, but every time he did he quickly banished the thought. He couldn't leave Lix, he discovered. He couldn't leave his child. Despite being unable to really have a mother/son relationship with his own child they HAD bonded, and Zim just couldn't imagine leaving his amazing half breed with the Tallest. He couldn't do it. And he couldn't take Lix with him at this point because the Tallest had programmed him perfectly for loyalty and Lix would never stand for it.

Not unless Zim did some programming of his own.

It was clear that Lix enjoyed Zim's company, something that the irken was proud of. If he wasn't with the Tallest or doing some kind of training he was with Zim, indulging one of his many hobbies and asking Zim questions about things that normal irkens just didn't think of, didn't question. He was practically a philosopher.

"How come the Empire wants to rule the universe?" He would ask Zim while playing with a syringe.

"Heeeeeeh... what?" Zim asked, the question catching him off guard.

Lix turned his huge eyes to Zim. "Why do we have the invasions and all that?"

Zim looked around, as though he was being tested or something. What a silly question right… well then… what was the answer?

"B-because, the brains tell us to." Zim finally said, satisfied with that answer.

Lix was not.

"Why do THEY want to rule the universe then?"

Zim froze up once more. How the heck was he supposed to rewire a lighting fixture with all these questions?

"Just… because." He finally said, ducking his head as though that would protect him.

"That's not an answer." Lix pouted. He wasn't stupid though, he knew he'd stumped his caretaker, so he just went back to pretending to give irken vaccines or whatever it was he was doing.

The questions did not stop there, and again, he wasn't stupid. Over the course of the next year he'd discovered that he was natural born because of a study he'd read up on some natural borns being able to live without their paks and him being able to live without his pak. When he inquired though, Zim just told him to stop being silly that studies like that were a waste of money anyway.

"But Scooge is a natural born and he can live without his pak." Lix pointed out.

"Have you ever seen Scoodge?" Zim asked, crossing his arms. Lix wilted. Though Zim knew he was right, of course. Scoodge would constantly wander around without his pak on. He'd take it off and forget it somewhere.

But Lix knew all of this anyway. He knew he was a natural born, and that he was different. He took showers in water, instead of using cleansing chalk because that stuff irritated his skin. His eyes were a pigment that didn't even occur in the irken race, and his claws were a little more dexterous that a normal irken's.

There was no denying it for anyone, Lix was different, and he knew it.

* * *

By the time Lix was seven the Tallest decided he didn't need Zim anymore. They already had the smeet's future mapped out and he was living in a different room than Zim now. At this point it looked to them like Lix just hung out with Zim by force of habit.

"We can get rid of him now!?" Purple asked excitedly, clapping his hands like a happy smeet.

"Of course, we have to. He's bound to blow something up; he hasn't done so in years. He's probably overdue for an end of the world type deal." Red said, scowling at the thought.

Lix stood outside the door, waiting for his lesson to begin. They were going to kill Zim? But… he needed Zim!

When the Tallest opened the door to let Lix in there were tears in his eyes.

"You aren't really gonna kill him, are you?" He asked, wringing his hands. "He won't do anything bad. I promise!"

Much to Purple's astonishment Red simply smiled and said, "Of course not. We were just going to send him away, but if you want him here then I'm sure we can figure something out."

Lix smiled and nodded, walking in for his lesson.

Once that was over Purple was practically raging. "We can't keep him Red! We can't! Look at my claws! The anxiety of having him here is just torture on my claws!"

Red frowned and pushed Purple's claws out of his face before putting a hand on Purple's shoulder. "You need to CHILL OUT!" he commanded. This put a short rest to Purple's fretting. "We're still getting rid of him Purple, but do you want Lix to hate us?" Purple shook his head and Red removed his hand, turning and floating around the room. "He will die, Pur. But if we want to keep Lix's trust we'll have to do it carefully. It'll have to look like an accident.

* * *

Over the next two years over ten attempts had been made on Zim's life… that he knew about. A deadly bug was released into his room, someone jumped him and injected him was some kind of virus, his pak was broken into, his pak was smashed, he was almost thrown out a window, a fake mugging was staged, he WAS thrown out a window, every pipe in Lix's bathroom broke while he was in there, and then the Tallests' personal guards 'mistook' him for an assassin.

By the time Lix's seventh birthday rolled around he had several scars all over him from acid burns and fire burns and countless other injuries. At one point he was told he would need some kind of surgery, but he told that doctor where to shove his medical degrees, knowing it was another plot from the Tallest to try and kill him.

Lix could see right through this as well, and tried to talk to the Tallest about it, but they just kept playing on like Zim was just clumsy and stupid.

"You have to leave." He told Zim finally as he pulled broken glass from his arm. "you're gonna get killed!"

Zim just shook his head and winced before saying, "No, they've been trying to kill me since they first became Tallest, and they haven't succeeded yet. I'll be fine."

Lix shook his head and sat on the bed next to Zim, talking as though he was the parent. "It just takes once, Zim. You have to keep dodging their attempts but it just takes them succeeding once for it to be over! And you're all injured. It won't take too much more!"

Zim shook his head again before cleaning his cuts with some kind of antiseptic wipe. "I can't just leave you here." He admitted.

Lix looked confused.

"Why? The Tallest love me, nothing'll happen."

Zim just gave a laugh. "Something will happen." He turned to give Lix a look. "What are your interests, Lix? What is it you would like to do more than anything?"

Lix paused and thought about this a moment. "A medic lord." He finally answered. "I want to be the Medic Lord! I'd be really good at it!"

Zim nodded, saying, "Of course you would, but that's not what the Tallest want. They want you to be a soldier, their perfect little solder, and the moment you tell them that's not what YOU want they'll want to get rid of you too. I have to stay and protect you."

Lix frowned. Would the Tallest really…?

Seeing Zim told him that yes, yes they would.

"Then I'll go with you!" He said finally, nodding.

Zim shook his head. "I'm sorry Lix, but there's no way out." He sighed and got up, moving to take a soothing bath of cleansing gel. Using the chalk anymore hurt, so he was restricted to showers of a cleansing product that was usually just for luxuries.

* * *

By the time Lix was nine he'd began to notice some peculiar things about Zim. Like, how he refused to answer any of his questions about his natural parents when the Tallest would gladly inform him about who they were (it was all lies, of course) and how he would get sad at the same time every year. He also noticed that Zim was getting increasingly restless. He would wring his hands, his antennae would flick constantly, he couldn't sit for more than ten minutes, and if he HAD to, his legs would jump and he'd fidget constantly. It was almost like watching someone have a fit.

Not that Lix had much time to concentrate on his poor caretaker. He'd already made Elite and was constantly being sent on missions. He wasn't ever doing anything dangerous though, no he was much too young and small as it was (small for an Elite soldier, but extremely tall for someone his own age.) No, he took to guiding and advising and watching while on these missions. He always came back having learnt something new but he also always came back to Zim having another injury.

On one mission he came back to find Zim in the med ward with a broken antennae.

As soon as he arrived he found Zim once more arguing with the doctor over that surgery that he supposedly needed.

"You're squeedily spooch is in danger of rupturing!" The medic lord yelled.

"Yeah? And where did you come up with THAT one?" Zim yelled back. "You come anywhere near me with your drugs then I'll 'rupture' your head!"

The argument went on, Zim refusing everything, even pain medication for his antennae. Lix watched as every turn of the head made Zim wince, watched as several irkens began talking behind his back. It wasn't fair how Zim was treated. He didn't care what his caretaker had done in the past; he felt that he didn't deserve any of what was happening.

He walked up to Zim when the coast was clear and put his hands on the other's, whispering, "Please Zim, let's go. You can't take much more of this."

Zim's sad eyes met Lix's sad eyes and they held each other a moment before Lix said, "I'll get a ship ready and my stuff together, you get your own stuff, ok?"

Zim just nodded, not trusting himself to speak.

Lix hopped off, moving quickly. He couldn't afford to let anyone know what was going on or that he was up to something.

As soon as Zim was finished being checked out he went to his room and got his stuff together. Lix was right… Lix was usually right. They had to leave. He was feeling more run down than ever, like all these attempts on his life were finally taking affect… or were just beating him into suspicion. He didn't have as much energy as before, he could barely keep himself focused on anything and would just fall into a trance. Nothing meant anything to him anymore. Nothing but Lix.

"Ready Zim?" Lix asked, checking on Zim in his room. The non-broken antennae flicked in response.

Zim hulled up his stuff, a few uniforms, some tools, that was it, and nodded, saying, "Let's go. We should get out of here."

"There we go." Lix said with a smile. He couldn't wait to get Zim out of that place, away from the Tallests' hard grip.

Together they headed for the docking bay. No one questioned this because it looked as though Lix was leading Zim. Surely they couldn't be up to anything if Lix was in control.

"Where ya' going now, Lix?" One guard asked, smiling pleasantly.

"Commit smashing." Lix said with a wide grin. "I need more practice with a laser."

"Alright, just be careful out there." The guard warned with a wink before letting Lix into the ship.

Lix took off, but once they were out in space Zim took over the controls. "Where should we go?" He asked his guardian.

"There's only one place we can go." Zim said, setting the course. "Away from Irken territory."


	10. Chapter 10

OK here it is everyone! Chapter Ten! We're almost caught up with the original version of this story, which I went back and re-re-read just recently.

OMG it was horrible.

Just... horrible. It was basiclly TWILIGHT bad. (Not that Twilight is BAD... it just sucks.) So, yeah, so glad I started rewriting this, SO glad that my skills have improved majorly, and I feel MUCH better about that previous chapter. I still think it wasn't the best that I could do. But this is fanfiction, I'm sure we will all survive.

ANYWAY! This chapter isn't quite as long as the previous couple. But that's mainly because I didn't want to get too far into this part of the story. It's one of my faves.

Also, there was a lot of Zim abuse in this chapter, which I feel bad about. Someone, in a review, pointed out something very interesting to me about that. Zim DOES seem to take a lot of the hits in fiction. I guess that's because he's irken, we figure he's stronger and can take more. But there's a point where you just have to share the love and bruise Dib up a little too, so I figured I'd get all the Zim injuries out of the way now so they don't become too redundant.

Another point I'd like to mention before you get on with the story. There is not a lot of action in this one. I DID skip over what could have been an awsome action sequence but there was a reason behind it. First off, it would have been space action, and not being George Lucas I'm not very good at it, so it would have been a repeat of the last space ship fight. THe other reason is that, well, this isn't a very actiony point in the story. If I concentrated too much on that then the chapter wouldn't have flowed as well. Again, it would have seemed very Twilightish with a jaggedy action sequence followed by a heart breaking- well, just read.

Last note, thank you CJ for betaing! I haven't actually been able to re-read this chapter yet, so if there are any mistakes, blame him!

* * *

Zim wasn't entirely sure what had happened. All he knew is that he blacked out about ten hours after having left and he was sure that THAT wasn't a good thing. He tried to examine it, think back to what had caused the black out, but his head was hurting too much. He was also concerned about the fact that he couldn't hear anything and that the air felt very unfamiliar.

"Zim," He heard Lix call and his ok antennae twitched in response. He felt the younger irken's claws on his face and he had to open his eyes to the relieved face of his son. "Oh thank Irk!" He cried, hugging Zim tightly.

Zim sat up, hugging Lix to him and picking the smaller's form up as he stood. "Where are we?"

"I'm not sure." Lix said, looking around as well. "I'm not very good at flying, I couldn't pay attention to where I was steering AND the map or we would have run into something."

Zim had to stifle a laugh. Though he'd never admit it he always ran into the same problem.

All around them was dense jungle full of green and leafy things. The air was slightly humid, though not enough to cause damage it still burned Zim slightly. The ship lay a few feet away, and judging by the tracks in the dirt around it Lix had dragged Zim out of it when they landed… rather shakily it looked like.

Or maybe it was that they crashed, the ship didn't exactly LOOK like it had take serious damage, but the area around them certainly did.

"What happened?" He asked Lix, setting him down. The young irken was very tall, though light. He came up to Zim's chin, and was quite proud of that fact.

"You set the ship to auto pilot once we were out of irken territory and were complaining of a head ache. But the autopilot tipped off some runners a little ways away and they came at us." Lix explained frowning. "They didn't believe us when we tried to lie our way out of trouble and they fired on us. You hit your head and passed out. I got worried when your pak wouldn't wake you up so I flew for the nearest planet and they stopped chasing us once we entered the atmosphere. I sorta… crashed and had to get you out in the open to take a look at your pak. That was about an hour ago. I ran a diagnostic and it seemed your pain receptors just over loaded, so I gave you some pain killers and waited for them to take affect so your pak could take care of the rest."

Zim smiled. Though it was less of a smile and more of a gloating smirk. His smeet was so talented! Any parent would be happy for one of their own!

"How's the ship?" He asked.

Lix's antennae wilted. "Sorry, didn't think to check."

"That's fine." Zim said, walking over and maneuvering himself inside the tilted ship and powering it back up. Quickly he ran a system's check and a few tests. Nothing seemed badly hurt, though the ship responded rather sluggishly. Quickly he pulled up a map.

To his surprise they were just one system away from Earth. Granted he wasn't sure what that system was since it was on the other side of the Irken Empire, but the Milky way was right next door. It seemed the Massive was much closer to Earth than he remembered it being.

"Come in here." Zim called to Lix, who climbed inside the ship. "We're going to try and take off."

Lix sat himself in the co pilot's chair and strapped himself in as Zim piloted the ship up and through the atmosphere. All the while the ship gave him readings on how it was doing.

"It looks like we won't be able to get far." He mentioned frowning. The controls got more sluggish as they pierced the atmosphere and entered space once more. "But we should be able to find a back alley neutral zone where we can hide out."

Lix looked at the map. "It looks like we'll have to pass through rebellion territory to get there though." He pointed. "Think we can make it?"

"If we lay low." Zim said, turning away from the controls a moment to examine the map. Unfortunately he wasn't sure how much the Rebellion had progressed. For all he or even the Empire knew, they could have an army of ships guarding every inch of their territory.

But he flew on. His mind was now much clearer than when they'd departed and he did his best to concentrate on where they were going.

The entered Rebellion territory and Zim kept his eyes peeled while Lix watched the scanners. Nothing seemed to be approaching or even within firing range. But they stayed alert all the same.

Then, it seemed, out of nowhere there were at least three ships on their tail and before Lix could say anything they were being fired on.

The ship rocked this way and that, but when Zim wasn't able to put up much of a fight (they didn't exactly steal a battle cruiser) the ships decided to contact them.

"Zim!?" A vortian screamed on the screen, eyes wide with rage.

Zim narrowed an eye at this angry alien, confused. "Have we met before?"

"You don't remember me!?" The vortian yelled. "Well that just figures! You are an idiot after all!"

"Hey!" Lix yelled, quickly coming to his caretaker's defense. "Knock it off! Who are you!?"

The vortian just laughed. "I'm the vortian you beat up on that human rebellion station Zim!"

Zim continued to look confused a moment before a look of realization appeared on his face. "You're one of the creeps who ganged up on me and tried to get me kicked off the station!"

"You're the creep!" The vortian yelled and was about to fire when he received a communication on the head piece he was wearing. "What? No it's Zim!" He paused, listening to the voice. "Why can't we just blow him to pieces!? … no it's not personal!" He paused again. "Fine, fine, WHATEVER." And with that directed his attention back to Zim. "Looks like you get a personal escort back to the station, insect." And with that the three ships surrounded Zim's and they were directed toward a planet for on the outside of the Empire's hold over the Milky way, and to the space station that orbited it. This was not the original Membrane station. This was a colony of that, with Membrane's logo stamped on the side, but without all the showing off that the original did.

"Why aren't we fighting back?" Lix asked, looking worriedly at Zim.

Zim hesitated to answer before finally saying, "We don't really have that option. This ship is barely able to defend itself, and I've had dealing with the human resistance before. If we tried to run we'd be shot, but the humans' familiarity with me might keep us alive."

"This is a human rebellion station?" Lix asked, suddenly looking around curiously as they entered the hanger and instructed to touch-down.

Zim nodded. Hopefully that would be a good thing.

They obediently walked out of their ship when instructed to, Zim holding Lix's shoulder tightly, almost like he was marking his territory, showing no one was to touch him.

The human's did not take the hint and a few in soldier looking uniforms came to separate them to put them in cuffs.

Zim quickly reacted when one grabbed Lix roughly. He wasn't really thinking about it, but the prospect of them being separated frightened him, so he wrenched himself away from the human's who had merged on him and slugged the one who had his hands on Lix in the mouth.

This set off a violent reaction, all three soldiers pulling out their weapons and firing on the irken. Zim was pelted twice in the stomach and Lix, trying to get to Zim, took a shot in the arm, making him cry out in a way that most irken soldiers didn't. Pain was new to Lix. He couldn't ever remember feeling it before. Maybe he experienced a little emotional pain every once in a while, but he'd never so much as scraped his knee or broken a bone in his life. This made Zim ignore his own pain and wrap his arms around the scared little irken, pulling him close to protect him.

"What happened? Move!" Barked an authoritative voice, shoving the crowd that had gathered out of the way. A tall human with black hair and thin rimmed glasses pushed his way through to the front, grabbing one of the soldiers' guns and asking, "What happened!?" Once more.

"That irken attacked us!" The soldier defended, though sounding more like a child who got caught doing something he wasn't supposed to be doing. He pointed to Zim in a pouty sort of way.

The tall human, obviously a high authority figure here, looked to Zim, eyes widening in surprise. "Zim!" He barked.

Zim's good antennae perked up and he turned to the human with surprised eyes as well, his limbs holding the crying hybrid tighter.

This person he recognized right away.

* * *

Zim carried Lix with him as Dib escorted them to the med-bay. He'd offered to carry the younger irken, but he was so traumatized already that Zim told him that wasn't necessary and endured the pain in his stomach so his child could have some comfort. He even held the other as he sat down on a bed, waiting for the medic.

For a while Zim and Dib just stared at each other, the human almost looming over him.

It looked like Dib was about to speak when Nils came in, saying smugly, "Well well well, if it isn't Zim? Never thought I'd see you here again but then that would be just too good wouldn't it?"

Zim opened his mouth to reply but Lix whirled around, yelling, "Shut up! Don't talk to Zim like that! You don't know anything!"

Everyone in the room was shocked, Lix just glaring at Nils as he sniffled and shook with pain.

Nils though, did keep her mouth shut and went to take care of Zim, but he just shook his head and said, "Take care of Lix first, you can see he's in more pain than I am."

Nils just rolled her eyes and nodded. The area where he was shot was bleeding badly, but that's as far as the damage went. She cleaned the wound and dressed it and gave him a shot close by to immediately kill the pain (and sedate him somewhat.)

One Lix was lying one bed over Nils grudgingly started taking care of Zim's wounds, which required her to run a quick scan to make sure there was no damage, and to yank the bullets from their holes. She then cleaned the wounds, rubbed some sealant over it to stop the bleeding, and dressed them.

"There, now go somewhere else." Nils said with a glare before turning to leave.

Zim pulled his shirt back on, watching Dib the whole time, who was also watching Zim.

"Why're you here?" Dib finally asked.

Zim's good antennae twitched once more. That wasn't the question he had expected to hear… or maybe it just wasn't the one he'd hoped to hear.

"Running from the empire." Zim said, keeping his face just as stoic as Dib's. Or he wished it was. "What am I ever doing?"

Dib rolled his eyes, obviously in no mood to pity Zim. "I'll have someone here in a bit to escort you to your room. I'll check on you later to see if you're actually ready to talk."

* * *

Zim and Lix were provided with single rooms right next to each other that resembled studio apartments with the kitchen barely separated by a wall and the only other room being a washroom. They were also provided with some human like clothes so that they weren't mistaken for trespassers.

About an hour after Zim was lead to the room there came a knock at his door. At first he thought Dib would be there, but instead there was a little girl with dark-violet hair standing there. Her bright-green eyes sparkled up at him mischievously and she let herself in.

"Hi!" She said, putting a styrofoam box, one people take food around in, on the kitchen table. "My name is Hollin! Just thought I'd bring you by something to eat! Daddy said you like waffles!"

She then turned to give Zim a wide smile. "But he didn't say what kind you liked, so I made you bunches! I like waffles too!"

Zim just stared at her a moment. The girl was completely unfazed that he was irken. In fact, she scared HIM a little. "Should you… be here?"

"Nope!" She said with a laugh before going over to Zim's couch and sitting. "But I like meeting the new aliens. And Daddy seemed to think it's a good idea. He says I disarm them. Daddy own this whole place, you know?"

"Hollin!" A woman yelled, running down the hall before back tracking when she saw Zim still there at his open door. "Excuse me." The woman said, getting Zim's attention and pulling it away from Hollin. She had the same green eyes only with light hair. "Have you seen…?"

"Little girl?" Zim finished for the woman. He then pointed into the room. "In there."

The woman nodded and went inside, yanking the little girl up into her arms in a hug. "Don't run off again!" She said, sounding relieved. "I was so worried about you!"

"I'm fiiiiine." Hollin whined. "I just came to drop off the waffles."

"Doesn't matter. Start listening." The woman, obviously Hollin's mother, said.

Hollin pouted as she was carried out the door.

The woman quickly turned back to Zim though, saying, "Sorry about that, she's got her father's talent for worrying me half to death. I'm Karen, by the way." She offered a hand for shaking.

Zim took the hand, looking at the woman curiously. "I'm Zim."

"Zim, right, Dib told me about you. Welcome to the station." Karen said happily.

Zim was getting a bit worried, the way everyone talked, it was like, "Is Dib her…." He nodded to Hollin.

"Her father?" Karen finished, still smiling kindly, though it was obvious she was sympathetic. "Yeah."

"Oh," Zim asked. Yes, she did look a lot like him. "How old is she?"

"I'm turning seven in TWO WEEKS!" Hollin cried excitedly, turning to Zim. "Will you come to my party!?"

"Shush," Karen told her daughter, giving her a look that said she was being rude. She then turned to Zim with her smile back on, "We'd love it for you to come to the party."

"Maybe," Was all Zim could say, too busy trying to wrap his mind around all of this. It was happening too fast! He was sure his pak would over load!

Karen could obviously see this and said, "I'm sure when Dib stops by you can RSVP with him. I'll let you get settled in now." And with that she left, closing the door on her way out.

* * *

I would just like to say, before I'm pelted with shoes, that in the first version Karen came across as very mary-sueish though I tried to prevent that. I'm revamping her a little bit but there are somethings that I cannot change and so she will still come across as a little too well put together. That can't be helped, unfortuantly, as it is important for the plot that she is sympathetic to Zim.

And Hollin, well there's just no helping her character. She's based on my friend, yes, her name is ACTUALLY Hollin. While I didn't exacctly know her at seven I've heard stories and am adapting her charming personality to this story (because making up characters is a pain in the ass and she just recently became the most awsome person in the world. No this is NOT a self insertion fic I just stole my friend's personallity.)


	11. Chapter 11

OH MAI GAWD WHAT'S THIS!?

It's chapter eleven because I was up at three in the morning and I LOVE YOU PEOPLE!

Little longer than usual, but that's because I got excited with this chapter. Things are changing completely from teh original story now, as this is about where I left off.

WE'RE CAUGHT UP!

Thank you CJ for betaing once more, ended up not taking your advice though. I mean, I wanted to, but I decided that I was happy enough with that scene, and I wanted to get on with writing chapter twelve.

Also, to those of you people who review anonymously, I would like to thank you! When most people review, I'll use the reply button, but for those of you who don't have an account, or I didn't reply to, I'm sorry and THANK YOU!

Usually if you don't get a reply it's because I'm in the middle of something like cooking dinner or cleaning, so yeah, it's not that I don't appreciate your reviews, it's just that I have no job and am not in school yet, so I'm busy doing other things to 'pull my weight' and jsut can't wait until I"m done to READ YOUR REVIEWS CAUSE THEY MAKE ME HAPPY! ANd yet I have no time to reply and forget to later.

I don't have a good memory, so if there's any incontinuity in these fics, that's why.

Anyway, enough about me, GO READ!

* * *

Zim paced like caged tiger. How could Dib, how COULD he!? He knew it wasn't rational to have expected to Dib have been waiting for him, worrying over him for almost ten years, but to have actually had a child with that human woman!? To have chosen a family he'd always claimed to have never wanted over his irken lover!

Again, he knew he was being irrational he just didn't care! It wasn't fair! The whole reason Zim had left is because Dib didn't WANT a child! He'd spent the last few months of their relationship telling his father to piss off because he didn't WANT kids!

How could any of that have made sense to the irken? It just didn't. There was no way any of that could be real. Zim figured he was having some sort of nighttime hallucination, like when a human dreams. Yes, that was it. He'd been knocked out by one of the Tallests' attempts at killing him and was currently hallucinating.

Or maybe he was dead and this was just Hell.

Either way Zim wanted out and as he headed for the door it swished open, Dib walking in with a superior yet entirely too calm look on his face. One would swear he wasn't about to interrogate his former alien lover, but rather was playing a somewhat difficult game of chess.

Zim stopped, his breath catching in his throat and his irken heart pausing.

They stared at one another, neither really knowing what to say. Zim wished Dib would yell at him. That he would yell and scream at Zim for leaving and throw insults so that Zim could yell back, and argue that Dib never really cared and had lied to him. That way he wouldn't be the only one looking bad in the argument. Unfortunately he knew Dib was way too rational for something like that and he was proven right when Dib finally did open his mouth.

"Going somewhere? Or did I actually catch you running away this time?"

Zim grimaced. That comment stung, but he quickly adopted an angry look, one he usually wore when ignorance and his supposed charm couldn't get him out of whatever trouble he'd gotten himself into.

"Go ahead, make jokes, be angry or whatever, but you have no idea-!"

Dib quickly interrupted. "Don't give me any of your bullshit Zim; I didn't come here for excuses. I don't even care that you left anymore. I stopped caring-…."

It was Zim's turn to interrupt.

"Seven years ago?" He asked, hiding his pleasure at the confused look on Dib's face. He didn't wait for the human to ask to elaborate. "At the most. I met your daughter. She's turning seven. That means you had to have stopped caring a little more than seven years ago."

Dib turned angry then. "You don't understand anything about that!"

"Of course I don't!" Zim yelled, feeling insulted. "I don't understand anything because I'm the stupid alien defect!"

"No you aren't!" Came an insistent yell from the still open door. Lix was standing there looking intensely upset. "You're not a defect Zim! You're just unique!"

Zim immediately calmed down at the worried look the hybrid held on his face and he said quietly. "Go lay down, Lix. I'll come talk to you in a minute."

"No!" He said, pouting. "You're upset!"

Dib looked back and forth between the two, watching in amazement. Irkens didn't have this kind of relationship. It was weird to see Zim suddenly so calm and in control of himself. And then there was just the fact that he was with anyone else at all. Zim just didn't make attachments like that.

Zim sighed and walked over to Lix. He put a hand on the other's shoulder and whispered something to him. To this Lix nodded and slunk off to his room, looking like he'd just been told he couldn't watch TV or something.

"Who the hell IS that?" Dib had to asked, giving Zim a piercing look.

Zim whirled on Dib and shut the door, looking angry once more. "What do you even care?"

He knew Dib had the right to know. But he couldn't tell the human. If he did then the human would go and do something stupid that would let Lix know. He couldn't afford that kind of rejection. Not when he'd just found out that the only person he'd ever really cared about had given up on him after only two years of being gone.

"It's my ship Zim." Dib stated matter-of-factly. "I deserve to know who's on my ship."

Zim just stared Dib down a moment before saying, "His name is Lix and he's a smeet who was put in my care after I'd left. The Tallest were just gonna kill me. But they decided not to when the smeet took to me better than anyone else."

Dib seemed to accept this answer with a, "Whatever."

"We'll get your ship fixed up and then you can go." He said as he brushed past Zim and left the room.

A few minutes later Zim entered Lix's room and sat on the bed, to which Lix instantly crawled into the other's open lap.

Zim hugged his smeet, thinking for a moment that he really wish he could have a deeper relationship with Lix. Then maybe he wouldn't feel so empty when he thought of Dib. But the Tallest had made sure to poison his hybrid's mind, thus erasing any chance he had. Who would want Zim for a parent after all of that? He buried his face against the smaller's shoulder, which was a little wider than a normal nine year old smeet's shoulder. But only when standing next to another irken could you really pick up this slight difference in bone structure.

"That human upset you a lot didn't he?" Lix asked, looking none-too-pleased himself.

Zim just let out a shaky breath, replying without looking up, "I think I deserved it."

Lix simply cocked his head to the side in confusion. Zim could feel this and elaborated, "I was so… ignorant. The one time I decide not to be selfish ended up being the wrong choice."

Lix reached a hand up to pet Zim's head lightly as he said, "I don't think you're very selfish. You spent the last couple of years taking care of me."

Zim shook his head and laughed, "No, that was me being selfish too. I wanted to keep you."

Lix laughed as well. A lot of things that Zim said didn't make sense, but he could pick up on the affection in the other's voice and it made him feel happy. It was much better than the Tallests' proud approval.

* * *

Since then Zim pretty much stayed in his room. Occasionally Hollin would drop by, quickly followed by her mother. Hollin seemed to have an infatuation with Lix and often asked to play with him. Zim approved, feeling that Lix would enjoy the company of a smart alien, as Hollin did seem to be a very bright girl.

But then, what could you expect from Dib's daughter?

One day, about three days until Hollin's birthday, Karen decided to hang out with Zim. While the kids played Karen made herself comfortable on Zim's couch, taking one end while Zim had the other.

"Dib's been rather moody lately." Karen said, keeping her hands on her knees so she wouldn't feel inclined to offer any sort of affection during the conversation she planned to entangle Zim in. She felt that Zim might not appreciate it.

"I can imagine he would be." Zim said, not really looking at Karen as she made small talk. He didn't exactly feel like making friends with Dib's current wife or lover or whatever it was she was to him.

"He doesn't hate you, you know?" Karen said.

This didn't elicit much of a reaction unless you count clamming up as a reaction.

"He says he doesn't care but I know he does, Zim. I think you know this too. He wouldn't be angry unless he cared."

Zim's antennae wilted. Dib was angry at him.

"He was really upset when you left, you know?" Karen said, fidgeting a little. "he tried to look for you. But after a while, when he couldn't find you, he just figured you ran away because you were sick of his father. They got into a huge argument over and in the end Membrane decided to give Dib this station so he could run things his way. Membrane is still keeping tabs on him, though. Dib's not really free of him because Membrane still runs the rebellion."

"Membrane has never had anything to do with the decisions I've made." Zim said angrily. "I hate that man for what he did to Dib back then! I've always hated him for everything he's done! As if that would influence me to leave Dib!"

Zim took a moment to remember who he was talking about and quickly calmed down.

"It doesn't matter anyway. He wants me gone and that's all there is to it."

Karen gave Zim a sympathetic look. "That's not really though." She waited for a response and when she didn't get one she asked, "Why DID you leave then?"

"It was a medical thing." Zim said. He frowned at Karen. "I had to get it taken care of in the Empire."

"Why couldn't Nils take care of it?" Karen asked and Zim shook his head.

"I couldn't trust Nils with this. It had to be done in the Empire. Then I had to stay because Lix needed me." That was all Zim was going to say about it.

Karen decided that she could tell when the conversation was over and got up, asking, "Can I expect you at Hollin's party?"

Zim shook his head, his eyes downcast. "I won't be feeling well that day."

* * *

Lix ended up running off to the party. He would have stayed with Zim if the elder had let him but he wanted to be alone. So he gave Hollin's present to Lix (something that had been made from the electronics that he found lying around) and sent him off. Zim spent the rest of the day then curled up on the covers.

Seven years old. The proof that Dib had moved on was seven years old and it made him sick. Hollin was a sweet and smart girl, but she was the embodiment of the fact that Dib's world didn't revolve around Zim and it just killed him. It sounded selfish, and it probably was, but he would give anything if Hollin and Karen could just vanish from existence and let him patch things up with Dib.

So Zim spent that day alone, not even answering when both Karen and Lix came knocking at his door. He simply pretended to be asleep and ignored them.

* * *

After the party Karen walked Lix to his room, knocking on the door to let Zim know he was back, before heading to her own quarters that she shared with Dib and Hollin to help clean up.

Their apartment was much bigger than everyone else's. A perk of being married to the leader. Hollin had already dragged all her presents to her room and was currently pretending to be putting them where they belonged, while actually playing with them.

Karen helped Dib bag up wrapping paper and shove it all down the recycling chute. Once done that sat on the couch together, about ready to collapse from exhaustion.

"Wish Zim could have come. Bet he would have liked the cake." Karen said idly. Dib just grunted. "You should go talk to him." She said then. "I think he might be sick or something."

Dib gave his wife and unimpressed look. "You know how I feel about that bug."

Karen looked just as impressed. "I know how you USED to feel too. You were in love with him, Dib. I think you still are or it wouldn't make you so angry that he left."

Dib just huffed and turned his head away. He did not want to be having this conversation with Karen. The two of them weren't exactly in love, but she was the mother of his daughter and it just didn't seem right to be talking about his alien lover to her.

"I talked to him you know." Karen argued.

"Oh yeah?" Dib asked, rolling his eyes. "And what excuse did he give you that he left, hm?"

Karen gave Dib an angry look. "It was a medical reason Dib. Remember you crying to me after he left about how worried you were because of how sick he was? That's the reason!"

"yeah right!" Dib yelled, standing. "He's probably just gotten better at lying. He was having blood sugar issues. Hardly a medical emergency!"

"You seemed to think it was!" Karen yelled. "For all you know it could have been some irken equivalent of cancer!"

Dib shook his head. "I can't believe you're buying into his bullshit! That's all it is!" He took a deep breath to keep his voice from getting any louder. "He left me for his Empire. That's all he's ever cared about, ask anyone. Even Nils knows this and when she looked at him right before he left she saw that there was NOTHING wrong with him. HE even said so. I was panicked then but NOW I know better. He's just a liar."

Karen shook her head, saying, "No, irkens are liars. He's a defect. And if he really didn't care then he would have no problem showing up at the party today. But he didn't, in fact he's been avoiding even the CHANCE of running into you. He's ACHING Dib."

"No." Dib said, glaring at a wall. "he's just mad because he was caught." And with that he disappeared into their room.

* * *

Zim quickly figured out that you couldn't hide forever and eventually Lix, with the help of Hollin, got Zim out of his room and doing stuff. Thankfully Zim didn't run into Dib at all the first few days out and got into a good rhythm of activity. Lix was very happy with this because it seemed the more energy Zim used the happier he was. His injuries he'd received from the attempted assassinations had also healed up nice and his broken antennae turned out to not be completely useless. He could still hear from it but it didn't move quite like it used to.

One morning he found himself in the stations observatory. Not many people went there it seemed. Once you'd seen the same patch of stars ten times you usually didn't care to see them anymore. Especially when said stars were right outside your window anyway. So Zim usually had it to himself.

Only that morning Dib was there as well and had caught sight of him just before he could sneak back out.

It turns out he'd been waiting for Zim.

"using a medical excuse was clever." Dib said, glaring at Zim. "Being that I was so worried about you and everything."

"Why do you even care?" Zim asked, glaring back defensively. "You said you didn't want to hear my excuses anyway, why should you care what I tell Karen. Even if it was a lie?"

"Because now she's all pissed at me that I won't go running back to you and embrace you in some kind of show of relief." Dib said, growling.

Zim looked confused." Your WIFE wants us back together?"

Dib rolled his eyes. "She's not exactly the love of my life, Zim. We were friends and decided to get married so Dad would stop bitching at me."

Zim looked even more concerned. "Then what about-?"

"I'm not here to discuss my life with you!" Dib yelled. "I want you to stop feeding Karen your bullshit sob stories!"

Zim snarled. "Just because you don't believe me does not mean that everything I say is bullshit!" he yelled. "You're just all pissed because you didn't want to admit that maybe it was YOUR fault that I left!"

Zim honestly didn't expect the reaction he got, which was Dib's mouth snapping shut and his form stiffening up as though he'd been punched.

"What are you saying?" Dib asked, looking surprised. "Are you saying I did something?"

Zim's own form relaxed and he looked off to the side, trying not to look like he cared. Even still though he shook his head as he lifted up his shirt. There was still a large scar from the operation he'd had.

"I'm not a liar, Dib." He said before looking down at the scar. He traced it with one of his claws and Dib walked nearer to get a better look at it.

"What was it then?" He asked, almost reaching out to touch it, but he didn't.

Zim looked up at Dib, debating with himself on what to say before finally saying, "I can't tell you."

Dib looked angry again. "Why not?"

"I can't." Zim said, frowning. "Just- that- that day I left. That thing on the scan that I said with scar tissue… that's not what it was." Dib opened his mouth to ask but Zim beat him to it. "I can't tell you what it was. Just… I had to get it removed."

Dib put both hand on Zim's shoulders and gave him a small shake. "Damn it Zim! Stop jerking me around!"

Zim glared and gave Dib a push. "I told you what I can, why isn't that enough for you!?"

Dib pushed back. "Because if you're holding the truth back from me then how can I trust that it's even the truth in the first place!?"

Zim held his ground. "You could trust ME!" He yelled. "You used to!"

He then smirked, "And what about you holding out on me?" The alien asked. "Why DID you have Hollin? Same as Karen? Does it make your loving father happy to have a little demon grand-daughter?"

Again, Zim wasn't expecting Dib to react that way he did. Before he could even contemplate that Dib was throwing a punch at him he was already on the floor with a sore cheek.

That was the end of conversing. Almost like when they were back in school together they were rolling on the ground trying to kill each other. The only difference was that Dib quickly over powered Zim this time. He'd obviously been training while Zim was babysitting his own child and he still didn't have used of his pak. Zim kicked at Dib, trying to get the other off but ultimately failing which only made Dib laugh.

"You've really gotten pathetic haven't you? You probably couldn't even beat me if your pak was working!"

Zim struggled before going still. "No," He said with a glare. "you're the pathetic one!"

Before Dib could ask why something tackled into his side, knocking him off of Zim.

"Leave him alone!" Lix yelled, effectively subduing the human. Or… it would have been effective had Lix not been so much smaller than Dib, thus allowing Dib to escape and lift Lix up with one hand.

Lix glared at Dib, a look so eerily similar to Zim's that it almost made him shiver.

The small irken struggled in Dib's grasp, trying to punch or kick the alien. "You leave Zim alone!" He yelled. "You've hurt him enough you just leave him alone!"

Dib looked back and forth between the two irkens and Zim got up to snatch Lix from his grip.

"I'm fine," Zim said, glaring, but not at Lix or Dib. "Don't get in the middle of it."

Dib scowled. "Your ship is almost done." He said. "Once it is you can leave." And with that he left the observatory.

* * *

Dib sat in the security booth of the space stations upper floor where the main control center was. He was watching footage of the corridor their irken visitors stayed in, going over it. He told himself that he was just making sure that they weren't up to any trouble, but there was something about them, both Lix and Zim, that made him feel edgy. He couldn't put his finger on it but it didn't feel right.

Karen found him half an hour later staring at some still frames of Zim and Lix, Zim carrying Lix to the room after they had first gotten there.

She smiled. "Dib, you're going to have to let go of your anger eventually." The human woman came up behind the other and wrapped her arms around Dib.

"It would be easier if Zim wasn't hiding something." Dib said, ignoring Karen's affection in favor of staring at the picture.

Karen hummed and looked at the still frame, humming before saying in a happy voice, "If you didn't know any better, you would swear Zim was born to play mommy or something!"

Dib hummed, about to throw the comment from his mind before quickly latching onto it. He stared at the screen harder for a minute before standing, dislodging Karen from around his neck.

"I have to go!" He said quickly, walking from the security booth.

* * *


	12. Chapter 12

I feel like this chapter is crap, but that might be because I feel like crap. -_- Drama plus being doubly ill dose not get someone in the mood to write!

I'm also sorry this chapter took to damned long. But like I said, drama got in the way (said drama is still going on, btw) and is never good for inspiration until it's, you know, over. I actually finished this a while ago but then I got sick and just getting on the internet was a chore. I threw up so much there wasn't even bile left in my liver to come up. There was litterally NOTHING in me. -_- So yeah, that wasn't fun.

In other news, despite the fact that I wasn't inspired for THIS (which may explain the proceeding crappiness of the chapter) I was inspired to finally start writing my own original work. I still consider myself in the planning stages but I'm writing down a bit of the opening exposition. It helps in the overall planning of things.

So, these chapters may come out slow from now on. I'll be doing a lot more revising of them because the upcoming conflict is going to get tricky and I never actually planned out how everything unfolds. I know WHAT happens, I just need to figure out HOW.

* * *

"You're going to tell me EVERYTHING NOW!" Dib yelled as he barged into Zim's room, Zim giving Dib a confused look that should have told the human that he was way too tired to deal with bad attitudes and vague demands, but Dib didn't even seem to notice.

"What are you talking about?" The irken asked drowsily, eyes tired and droopy from his nap.

Dib handed Zim two sheets of paper, each one with a picture of either Zim or Lix. Next to the pictures were various notes marking the similarities between each irken.

As Zim read through this he steadily got more alert until he could feel Dib's gaze on him, the human waiting expectantly.

"What is this?" He asked Dib, looking offended and defensive. "What do you WANT from me?"

"The truth Zim!" Dib yelled. "Stop lying to me! He's your son, isn't he?"

Zim flinched, like Dib was coming at him before quickly recovering.

"Why would you CARE!?" The irken asked. "First off it's none of your business and second you have a daughter! Why should you concern yourself with whether or not I'm passing MY genes along!?"

"Is he?" Dib asked, voice lowering and softening to the point where Zim had to almost strain to hear.

"No," Zim said after a moment's hesitation. He through the papers to a table. "You can leave now."

"I don't believe you." Dib said, his tone soft but not conversational. "There are too many similarities between your appearance. I already had someone else go over it as well. Nils can tell genetic similarities in looks and-…."

"You told Nils!?" Zim shouted, suddenly looking panicked.

"So he is your son?" Dib asked, trying not to look smug, but failed, crossing his arms in a show of superiority.

"Shut up!" Zim yelled, quickly opening his door to make sure that no one was outside in the hall. "Irk Dib why can't you just leave us alone!? You don't like me anymore, I get it so why should you care!?"

Dib frowned, not having expected such logic from his once lover. "I care because this is my station and you've been lying to me, and yet you want me to believe you. No Zim, that's not how it works, you're going to tell me the truth if I have to force it out of you."

"Fine!" Zim barked, clenching his fists tightly. "Lix is my son, are you happy!?"

Dib simply shook his head.

"Why does he call you by your name then? It's obvious you care for him as a son and yet he doesn't seem to hold the same familial relationship. He treats you more like some kind of pet or possession. Not in a bad way, it's obvious he cares about you but-…"

"He doesn't know." Zim said, glaring. "And you aren't going to tell him."

"Why not?" Dib asked, looking confused. "Why doesn't he know, why shouldn't he know?"

Zim groaned in aggravation, going back over to the bed and sitting down. "When he was born the Tallests discovered he had some special mutations and so they wanted to train him personally. I'm sure you've wondered why someone with my genes is so naturally tall, right?"

Dib nodded but didn't speak, sitting on the couch and giving Zim his full attention.

"Right after he was born they planned to get rid of me, but Lix wouldn't eat or sleep and kept crying, so the Tallest had to let me take care of him or he would have died. So they reinstated me into the race and let me take care of him under the condition that I not make any trouble and that included not letting him know that he was my son."

Dib frowned hard. "You aren't under the Tallests' rule now. Why can't you tell him?"

Zim gave a laugh, a loud cackle that took Dib off guard. "are you insane?" He asked the human. "And let Lix know that I've been lying to him all these years? Not to mention the fact that the Tallests have poisoned his mind in regards to me. Sure he's fine with me being his caretaker but who wants the most dangerous defect that the Empire has ever known as their parent?"

"I'm sure he wouldn't care." Dib said, not looking impressed by Zim's excuses. "He as the right to know."

Zim shook his head, standing and making his way to the door. "No, I don't think so. I'm not going to tell him and you defiantly aren't." With that he opened the door. "You can leave now."

Dib didn't look pleased but got up anyway to leave, pausing just at the door. "He'll figure it out eventually."

"Then I'll deal with it then." Zim snapped before pushing Dib out of the door. "Now stop interfering with my life and tell Nils to keep her trap shut!" With that he slammed the door closed, huffing back over to his bed and throwing himself down. When did life get so hard?

(break)

Zim was reluctant to continue with his walks around the station after that, but did so anyway, mostly to keep Lix from becoming too concerned with him. He made sure to destroy all the evidence that Dib had brought him to prove that they were related and felt safe enough to leave his room unlocked incase Lix needed anything.

He was cautious when entering the observatory, making sure first that Dib wasn't there again to ambush him before walking in and taking a seat at one of the benches feeling strangely run down.

Since their last confrontation they'd been avoiding each other, both moving in the opposite directions if ever they came across each other and making sure not to make eye contact. It was rather frustrating for Zim because he felt sure that he hadn't done anything really wrong to the human but forget to leave a note. Dib seemed to be taking it way out of proportion as usual. But then maybe things were always so big to humans? Their life spans were much shorter than an irkens. Dib was twenty-six and Zim was still in his late teens according to irken time. To Dib it must seem like time just stood still for the irkens so every moment wasted on the negative would seem so much longer to a human. Those nine years, though nothing for Zim, must have been so long to the human that the bitterness just festered.

Sighing Zim got up, tired of thinking about such things and made his way back to his room. Upon entering he found it trashed. Things were thrown everywhere, clothes, papers, the contents of various drawers which included the very few personal items he had (irkens didn't particularly need many.)

Zim proceeded into the room cautiously, not panicking, but not taking things so nonchalantly either. He couldn't see anyone, but someone was obviously there because he heard scuffling.

The only place anyone could be hiding, however, was the bathroom and so he went to the door and slowly opened it up. Whoever was in there freaked out, however, letting out a shout and punching Dib in the gut before he could even see who it was. It wasn't a hard or particularly well placed punch but pain ripped through Zim's abdomen, allowing his attacker (there might have been more than one by the sound of their retreat but he was in too much pain to tell) to escape through the still open front door.

Zim groaned as he fell to the floor, unable to move through the pain. He was left to lie there and hope that someone would come along and wonder why his front door was open.

In the end it was Lix who found him, but he was unable to carry Zim properly so he quickly ran out into the hall to call for help. He was ignored by almost every human that passed, none of them carrying that Zim was hurt or needed help.

Just as Lix was about to run inside and carry Zim to the medical bay himself Hollin ran up, asking, "What's wrong, what happened?"

Lix looked distressed as he explained how he found Zim.

"I'll go get my Daddy!" Hollin said quickly, looking just as concerned. She cared for these irkens very much and couldn't understand why no one wanted to help! "He's really strong, so he'll be able to help!" And with that she ran off.

Lix thanked her quickly before going back in to make sure Zim wasn't dying or anything.

Lix liked Hollin. She was sweet and very energetic. Even though she talked a lot that was mostly a good thing as he was more of an observer and so preferred listening to actually holding a conversation. The only one he ever talked to at length was Zim, but that's because Zim was his teacher, his caretaker, Zim needed to know what was going on with him. Only now he needed to know what was going on with Zim.

"Don't worry, Hollin went to go get her father." Lix said, keeping a hand on Zim's shoulder as the other lay on the ground, holding his stomach. "What happened?"

"I don't know," Zim answered through grit teeth. "Room was trashed and… someone hit me… dunno why it hurts so badly."

Dib came quickly, looking more like he was concentrating, rather than concerned. "What happened?" He asked as he went to pick Zim up. Lix explained and he nodded, holding Zim carefully and carrying him to the med bay.

Nils rolled her eyes as Zim was brought into the bay and laid gently on a table. "Ok, what now?"

Dib didn't look entirely sure as he said, "Zim was punched and is now in serious pain."

"Punched?" Nils asked, narrowing an eye and lifted up Zim's shirt before scoffing. "He's not even bruised, are you sure Zim doesn't just have that Munch-whatever?"

Dib shook his head, "Zim may enjoy having all the attention but he doesn't have Munchausen's."

Nils didn't look sure and almost refused to look into it any further until she caught site of Lix, who was looking more than upset with Hollin gently rubbing his back just below his pak. She groaned.

"Alright," She said, looking to Dib. "Get me the scanner, we'll have a look."

Dib did as he was told before leaving, saying he was sure Zim would be fine and to just keep him posted. Hollin stayed though to give moral support.

Nils ran a few scans before determining that Zim had ruptured something and declaring, "We'll have to run a probe to have a better look."

By that time Karen had come back to inform her daughter that it was lunch time, but she refused to leave.

"But Zimmy ruptured something!" She said, looking awful and upset along with Lix. "I have to stay to make sure he's ok!"

Nils walked up and said quickly, more for the children's benefit than anything, "Zimmy will be fine, you should both go get something to eat." And with that she handed Karen a piece of paper, saying, "Give this to Dib, he wanted to be kept posted. Something in Zim's spooch ruptured and we're having him swallow a probe to see the full extent of the damage, from just this scan it's hard to tell."

Karen nodded and ushered the children from the mad bay.

"What's going on?" Dib asked lazily when Karen got back, looking quizzically at the irken child for a moment before deciding that he didn't really care if Karen decided to play baby sitter while Zim was incapacitated.

"Something ruptured." Karen said, handing Dib the scan. "They're looking into it further."

Dib looked at the scan, not really sure what he was looking at before focusing more clearly. "Wait a sec…" He mumbled before getting up and pulling his coat back on. "Watch the kids, I'll be right back!"

Karen rolled her eyes as Dib darted from the room before looking down at her daughter and her daughter's irken friend. "I wish your daddy would make up his mind about whether he cared or not."

"Me too!" Hollin said, but more to agree with her mother than in real understanding of the situation.

(break)

"Nils!" Dib yelled and he ran into the med bay, Nils humming in acknowledgment as she stared at a screen, showing what the camera in Zim's gut was seeing. "Nils, the scan." He handed it back to her. "Isn't that rupture in the same area as that weird mass we saw before Zim left?" He asked.

This pulled Nils attention away from the scan and Zim's antennae perked up. The irken seemed much calmer with painkillers in his system.

Nils looked at the scan before nodding. "That's exactly where it was." She said, looking up at Zim.

"Zim knows what that REALLY was." Dib said, frowning at the irken. "What was it Zim?"

Zim shook his head. "I told you, I can't tell you."

"Damn it Zim!" Nils yelled. "Tell us so we can help you, unless you WANT to die!"

Zim cringed looking back and forth between the two.

"You have no empire to escape to this time Zim." Dib said, glaring. "You exhausted that option when you escaped with their precious mutant. Not to mention they want you dead anyway. We're the only ones that can help you but you HAVE to tell us what that thing was!"

Zim hesitated. He knew Dib was right, and it wasn't like he was in any condition to escape anyway. Finally, and reluctantly, he said, "It was Lix."

Both Dib and Nils looked confused and looked to each other for the answer, but neither knew so they turned back to Zim. "What?"

Zim groaned in exasperation, putting his hands over his face so he wouldn't have to face Dib as he said quickly, "It was an egg pouch! I'd seen one before when I was a scientist on Vort, trying to figure out why our race couldn't reproduce. The experiment failed. But I still remembered when it looked like and I had to leave because I knew that I couldn't trust Nils with discretion and I just wanted it to go away! I didn't want a smeet because you didn't want a smeet and I didn't want things to be more complicated that it had to be! So I had to go get rid of it which is why I left without telling you because I didn't think I would be gone so long!"

He paused, waiting for some kind of reaction but when none came verbally he looked up to see Dib's shocked face.

"So…" The human finally said. "You're not Lix's father, you're his mother?"

Zim nodded.

"And that would mean that I'm his…." But Dib couldn't go on so Zim finished for him. "His father, yes, that's you."

Dib had to sit down and looked all around as though everything was suddenly new now that he had a son. "That means that… we're parents… and Lix is our child and…."

"Dib," Nils said warningly, looking concerned. "Don't overdo it, you're in shock."

She then looked between the two of them before backing up out of the room. "I'm gonna go prep the OR."

Zim sighed and Dib stared at him, stunned.

"We have to tell Lix." Dib said to which Zim rapidly shook his head.

"No, we can't!"

Dib shook his head as well, saying, "We have to, I'm going to be a part of his life, a father, he has to know."

"No!" Zim pleaded. "He'll hate me! We can't tell him!"

"That's not up to you." Dib said with a glare. "I'm his father I have a say!"

"You didn't raise him!" Zim yelled back, glaring as well.

"And whose fault is that!?" Dib asked pointedly, making Zim flinch back.

"I'm sorry," Zim said finally, looking away. "I'm sorry about that but you kept going on about how you didn't want kids and how they would just get in the way!"

"That's because I wanted to stay with you!" Dib yelled, standing. "I thought that if I had a kid then that would mean losing you because you need so much ATTENTION!"

Zim gave Dib an insulted look. "I would have been fine! I wouldn't have cared!"

"That's not how it seemed to me!" Dib yelled. "You're so high maintenance that I figured having to share my attention with someone else would have been horrible for you!"

Zim shook his head. "It would have been but I would have gotten over it because at least we would have been together!"

The two just glared at each other for a moment before Dib plopped back down on the bed nest to Zim's. "All that time apart," He muttered. "All because we don't have the ability to communicate well."

Zim moved his glare down to him lap. "No, it's because I'm an idiot." He said. "The only reason I even ended up in the empire is because I didn't think enough to make sure the ship was ok before I left and the only reason I left so quickly was because I thought you would reject me if you found out and I was so tired of rejection."

Dib moved off the bed once more in order to sit on the bed next to Zim. "Is that the truth this time? Cause I'm really getting tired of you lying to me."

"That's the truth." Zim said with a nod. "There's really no way to hide it anymore."

Dib sighed and scooted closer to Zim, saying, "I'm not mad. I'm just glad you didn't go running to the empire or anything. I'm glad everyone was wrong about you."

"Why?" Zim asked, not looking pleased but leaning against the human anyway. "Because now we're stuck together because we have a kid?"

"No," Dib said, looking at Zim was an amused look. "It's because I like you too much."

Zim looked up at Dib, surprised a moment before his face turned completely serious. "I don't think you like me enough."

Dib laughed and gave Zim a kiss on the head, whispering into the alien's antennae, "I missed you."

Zim smiled and leaned more against the human. "I missed you too."

* * *

This chapter had no beta because we can't seem to coordinate our online time anymore now that he's in school and I'm job hunting.


	13. Chapter 13

Ok, for those of you who couldn't tell by now I'm just going through the motions of finishing this story up. I'm kind of bored with it right now, as it is. I don't think I planned it very well and I'm making all of those mistakes that I absolutely HATE in a story (in other words it feels like Twilight.) But don't worry, the climax won't end up being a bunch pf people talking about their feelings, there will be an epic battle and people WILL die. BUWAHAHAHAHA!

I am planning another ZaDR, for those of you who like my writing just that much, but I'm gonna try and have more plot in it than before. I will be starting it before I finish this though, so updates will be coming slower. I'd like to take a vote now, though, from my loyal reviewers. Would you like me to post it right away, or should I wait until I'm done with this story. I WILL finish this is it's the last thing I do, despite how little I like it at this point. I've just worked too hard on it to give up so do NOT fear. If you want the new one posted ASAP then say so, because I will finish this story one way or another.

I'm really excited about this new ZaDR I'm doing. ^^

* * *

In the end it didn't Zim long to recover from surgery. A tiny incision was made, no more than an inch long and using two tiny tools Nils repaired the rupture. He was able to go back to his room right away and Dib was more than happy to make sure he had everything he needed.

While he was in surgery Karen and the kids had cleaned up his room so he could just relax for the next two days.

Zim hated relaxing. It was like trying to catch lightening in a jar. He felt itchy, like little bugs were moving under his skin and he wanted to get up and DO something. But Dib and Karen and their kids were hovering like body guards and refusing to let him out of bed unless he had to use the bathroom.

"How do you want to do this?" Dib asked the morning of Zim's second day of bed rest.

"Do what?" Zim asked, looking at Dib wearily. The human had had a complete turn-around in the attitude department after learning he had a son.

"Tell Lix…." Dib said, leaning back against the head board of the bed, like Zim was doing. Zim figured it was a sort of intimidation tactic mixed with a comforting presence. Intimidation, because Dib was so much taller than Zim was now. Comforting, because he was so close and smiling so gently.

"Oh," Zim said, frowning. "Is there a best way to tell him? Or do all of them pretty much suck the same? I dunno how one is supposed to gently break this kind of news. 'I'm sorry Lix for lying to you all these years. You're half human and we're your parents.' Yes, he'll be completely forgiving." Zim sighed.

"Don't think about it like that." Dib said, shaking his head. "You act like we're telling him we got rid of his favorite pet or something. It's a good thing. He's gaining parents, not loosing anything."

"But I LIED to him!" Zim said, covering his face in his hands as though that would help him fuse into the wall.

"And he'll forgive you once he understands the circumstances. I did." Dib pointed out, taking ZIm's hands in his own, removing them from the other's face.

Zim gave an exhasperated sigh and nodded. "I hope you're right."

Dib smiled, a kind of affectionate but amused smile.

"Are you scared?" He asked.

"What!?" Zim asked, giving Dib a glare. "How dare you insinuate that I'm-!"

"SCARED!" Dib shouted, laughed a little and poking Zim's face where his nose would be to stall any arguments from Zim. "You're scared because you think he'll hate you."

Zim pouted, asking, "So what? It's a legitimate concern!"

"Yes, but still. It's so out of character." Dib said, pulling Zim close. "I'll let you blame it on the drugs if you break down while we tell Lix if we do it now."

"I'm NOT going to break down." Zim said, crossing his arms and pretending to be mad at Dib. Truth is he loved it. Dib was being antagonistic and yet sweet at the same time and he loved how Dib could pull it off. "But fine, just in case."

"Great, during lunch then?" Dib asked, seeming excited.

"Fine," Zim said again, sighing once more and leaning against Dib.

Lunch came and Hollin insisted that she take this opportunity to teach Lix to cook some. Karen supervised them closely as they made some little pizzas.

Zim stared at his pizza for a while, looking as though he was about to be sick.

"What's wrong?" Lix asked, putting a hand on Zim's arm. "Do you not like pizza? Do you not feel good?"

"It's the pain killers." Dib said, smiling sympathetically at the irken. "By the way, Lix, Zim and I were hoping to talk to you about something."

Zim scoffed when Dib used the word 'hope' but Lix didn't notice and asked, "What about?"

Dib glanced at his own family. Karen already knew, and he gave her a nod. They would tell Hollin later, together.

Karen picked Hollin up and whisked her out of the room, her complaining about wanting to know what they were talking about.

Lix watched curiously, only looking back when Dib addressed him again.

"Lix, Zim and I-…."

They were cut off by the sound of a blaring alarm.

* * *

Dib quickly left the room to find out what was going on, commanding Zim and Lix to stay where they were. Zim would have none of this. He quickly took Lix's hand and led him out into the hall. He then took his son to Karen's room, instructing her too look after the kids as he made his way to the bridge, where he knew Dib would be.

"What's going on?" Zim asked, pushing past security and going to stand by Dib.

"What are you going here? I told you to-!" Dib began, looking frantic but Zim would not have that.

"Oh please, don't act like you didn't expect me to follow."

Dib had to respect that logic and growled in frustration before answering Zim's previous question. "The Armada." He said putting on his leader face. "Not the entire Armada, but a good sized chunck along with the flag ship. I've already called in for back-up, but who knows how long it'll take them to actually get here."

Zim looked up on the screen. The Massive was displayed, surrounded by at least a quarter of the Armada. He smirked.

"This is perfect."

Everyone gave him a surprised look and someone spoke up.

"We aren't equipped to handle this kind of attack! We'll be destroyed!"

Zim shook his head. "You just have to survive until back-up get's here." He gave Dib a knowing glance. He could figure out who Dib had called. "Then take out the flag ship. Once the Tallest are gone the Empire will be in a frenzy. They won't know what to do until the Control Brains figure out who the next Tallest is. Even if this station is taken out the rebellion will still have the advantage."

People were shocked by Zim's thinking. Irkens were trained to think only of the whole, not of any individual. To him, what was a couple humans if the Empire was to be taken out for good?

"I will not put my family in danger so you can settle some score!" Someone shouted. "We have to evacuate!"

Zim glared, but Dib had to agree. "The civilians yes. Send a transmission to anyone who doesn't have military status to report to the pods."

"And what!?" Zim shouted. "Let Armada ship pick them off one by one!?" Zim glared at Dib now. "Did you forget I have family here too?"

"What can we do then!?" A female shouted, looking to be getting very upset. "If we can't evacuate what can we do!? We can't just send all our ships out there to be picked off either! We aren't prepared for something like this!"

Zim frowned, looking down in deep thought. He suddenly looked up and gasped before a wide smirk spread across his face. Quickly he grabbed Dib by his coat and began to drag him off the bridge. "Come with me." He said, as though leaving room for debate, despite his grip.

"What!? We're in the middle of planning!" Dib shouted, though he didn't fight against the irken. Obviously something brilliant or stupid had just come to him and he decided, on the off chance that it wasn't stupid, to hear the irken out.

"Sneak attack!" Zim shouted, pausing once out in the hall to gadge Dib's reaction. Dib looked intrigued.

"Go on."

"You help me get aboard the Massive and I kill the Tallest!"

Dib looked stunned then, and not in a good way.

"WHAT!? And how do you plan to do that!? You could get killed!"

Zim shook his head. "They've been trying to kill be for decades and they haven't succeeded YET!" He pointed out. "Besides, I'm really good at blowing up irken technologies. It shouldn't be hard. I know the inner workings of the massive like the back of my hand!"

Dib put a hand to his face, giving a groan. "How will you get out without also being blown up?" He couldn't believe he was concidering this.

"I'll set a detonater and get off the ship before the explosion." Zim explained. "Then you pick me up after. Piece of cake!"

"No, no no. I don't like this." Dib said, frowning. He leaned forward and hugged Zim tightly. "I don't want to lose you again. Not when I just got you back."

"You won't." Zim promised, hugging back. He pulled back suddenly, saying, "Now come on, you have to have some sort of stealth ship around here, right? Let's hop to it!"

* * *

Everyone seemed to like the idea of the irken risking his life instead of them risking their own. It rather disgusted Dib but he could understand. Besides, Zim didn't even seem to notice so it wasn't weakening his resolve any.

It was almost too easy getting Zim aboard. They flew a stealth ship through the field of Armada cruisers, being careful not to expend too much energy or they would be noticed. They came up under the Massive and Zim was able to sneak in through an unused snack line, probably to a broken dispenser.

Dib then flew carefully back to the base, feeling very wrong about leaving Zim there by himself.

* * *

Hours passed. Dib refused to leave the bridge until he saw the Massive light up like a Christmas tree. Karen and the children joined him not that long after, worrying for Zim as well and waiting to see if he succeeded or not.

Karen rubbed Dib's back, but he didn't notice, his gaze focused solely on the screen before him. Eventually Lix sat down next to Dib's chair, and Hollin sat next to him, hugging him tightly in comfort. No one spoke until the female from before gave a loud gasp, making half the bridge jump, including Dib.

"They're contacting us!" She shouted, eyes wide.

"Patch them through." Dib said quick, straightening up and preparing his best glare for the screen.

The Tallest appeared on screen, looking smug.

"Dear human resistance. Have you not wondered why we haven't attacked you yet?" Purple asked, unable to help a laugh, like he was building up to the punchline of a joke.

"Sure, why?" Dib asked, looking unimpressed.

"Because we were busy dealing with a little sneak." Red said, pulling a bound Zim up into view by the back of his shirt. "Nice try, but this isn't the one we want."

Dib's eyes widened, as did everyone else's. Zim failed… what would happen now?

Zim's mouth was held shut by a metal gag and one of his cheeks was bruised but otherwise he appeared fine. Dib was sure his ego took a big hit though.

"What do you want?" Dib asked, glaring at the Tallest once more.

"We want our hybrid." Red said, throwing Zim to the floor.

"FINE!" Lix yelled, getting up. Dib was about to tell him to be quiet, but Lix was far too outraged to put up with any of the human's commands. "Just leave Zim alone!"

Purple laughed, lacing his fingers together and saying, "That's not really up to you, now is it?"

"It is now!" Lix said, crossing his arms and taking over as though he were in charge, not Dib. "We do a trade! You give the resistance Zim and I'll go with you quietly."

Red scoffed, asking, "Why should we do that when we can just storm the base and take you?"

Lix was quick to show them exactly why, extending his right arm and displaying his self destruct switch. Everyone gasped and Dib quickly grabbed Lix's arm.

"What are you doing?" He growled, eyes wide with worry.

Lix turned to Dib and said in a voice similar to Zim's, "They won't let me. IF they want me as bad as they say they do they won't let me." He then turned back to the Tallest. "If you storm the base then I'll self-destruct, because I know you'll just kill Zim if you're allowed to keep him!"

"Why would you kill yourself over something like ZIM!?" Purple asked, shaking his head in disbelief.

"Zim is very important to me and I don't want you killing him! Besides," Lix smirked. "Think of all the damaged he's caused trying to help the Empire. If you give him to the Resistance think of how much damage he'll do trying to help THEM."

Red looked to Purple, saying, "This is very true."

"If you send a ship here on auto-pilote with Zim on board then I'll fly over to you once he's reached half way." Lix said, putting his arm down, hiding the self-destruct switch. "But if you cause ANY trouble during the exchange I won't hesitate."

"Fine, fine, when do we make the trade?" Red asked, waving a hand as though to wave away Lix's insecurities.

"Give me a few hours, I need to get all my sentiment out." Lix said, glaring at the Tallest for a moment.

"Alright, but hurry up, I don't like having this defect on my ship." Purple said, scowling before the transmition was cut.

Dib gave Lix a very concerned look for a moment, asking, "You have a plan, right?"

"Of course I do." Lix said, motioning for Dib to follow, which he did, with Karen and Hollin close on their heels. "I am Zim's son, right?"

* * *

Review plz!


	14. Chapter 14

AHHHHHHHHHHHH! I'm SO SORRY for having taken so long to upload this! How long has it been now!? Three-four months!? I SUCK! In my honest defense I've been SO BUSY lately. SO BUSY! First I had to get all this crap together for signing up for college classes, then I got a job at- get this- THE BAY AREA RENAISSANCE FESTIVAL! Yeah, I'm an actress now. GO ME! Don't get paid for it (don't get paid MONEY anyway. Just food and tickets and water and stuff like that.), but it's so much fun. I've felt like a hermit for forever now, but I've met so many new friends, maybe even a guy, and I have been able to let loose creatively in a way that I've never tried before. It makes me feel all special and shit! Whee! Then I started classes, and that's been taking up what little time I haven't already devoted to BARF, and is far more important than anything else I may have had going on previous. I'm sure you can understand.

On a some-what related note. Don't take college CPTs with a cold. You get stuck in the math class for adults who haven't been in school for a while and ask a LOT of questions. Not that fun. less for the teacher though, I imagine. I hate to think of what a person would have had to do in a past life to have to teach adults math. It's Hell just to be in the same class.

Anyway, so yeah, I've been just a touch busy. Which also explains this crap, half-assed, less than two pages long chapter. Sorry for this too. I just wnated you guys to know that I haven't abandonded you or this story and I really appreciate all the faving and whatching and reviewing, even if I haven't responded to you directly. I REALLY do appreciate it guys, and I swear I will try and get this done and over with, asap.

Also, does it seem like I make Zim REALLY girly? I've been reading through my stuff and Zim just seems like a TOTAL GIRL! I will definitely try and put an end to that.

* * *

"How did you know?" Dib asked Lix, confused. They followed Lix to his room where he sat on the bed.

"Zim underestimates me. I don't give him much other choice because I don't like to show off as much as he does, but I'm smarter than he gives me credit for." Lix said. "It wasn't hard to figure out."

"How long have you known?" Dib asked then, wondering what else the hybrid knew.

"Almost my whole life. Once I started studying to be a medic lord I was able to put the pieces together."

Dib paused before his next question, so Karen asked it for him.

"I suppose you know who your father is then." She said, holding Hollin in her arms.

Lix looked confused now. "No, I thought Zim WAS my father. I figured the Tallest just killed my mother but…."

"No," Dib said, shaking his head. "Because of the difference between human and irken breeding abilities Zim is your mother. I'm your father."

Lix was taken aback. He could now see, in the way that Zim interacted with Dib now, that that must be true, but without a hint he never would have guessed.

"You're my father?" He marveled, eyes wide.

"Yes, which is why I have to make sure you're safe. I don't like this plan, I don't like it at all." Dib said, frowning and shaking his head.

"Oh, my plan is really just to wait." Lix said, nodding. "It shouldn't be too much longer until reinforcements get here, right? So right before they get here we make the trade, I finish up Zim's plan, one of the reinforcements picks me up, and the Massive explodes."

Dib shook his head. This was crazy, this was stupid. This was so very like Zim, just a little less rash.

"Don't worry," Lix said, smiling wide. "Everything will be fine!"

Hollin cried slightly, running up and hugging Lix. "I don't want you to go!"

Lix tried to calm his half sister down and Karen drew Dib aside, asking, "How much longer until back up in here?"

"About an hour." Dib said, looking over at Lix. "I know the plan SOUNDS good, but still, I don't like this."

"I know, but what other choice do we have? He's basically already set it in motion just by telling the Tallest. There's no way we could get away with not sending him."

Dib nodded. This wasn't a good situation they were in. But he had to accept it anyway.

Half an hour later Lix was on his way to the Massive, space suit and other such necessities already to go in his pak for when they were needed. He felt nervous, very nervous as his ship passed by Zim's.

Once on the Massive he was met by the Tallest who were grinning widely.

"Come with us." Purple said, snickering lightly to himself.

The irken leaders led the smaller along a path or hallways, this way then that, then up an elevator, and finally to a small room. Inside it, lying on a bed was Zim.

"What!? I thought you sent him over!" Lix shouted, eyes wide and horrified.

"Yeah, and loose our only hold over you!?" Red shouted, pushing Lix in. "Have fun! We're gonna go blow up the resistance now!" And with that Zim and Lix were locked in.


	15. Chapter 15

Holy crap! How long has it been since I've posted anything regarding... well, anything? Ridiculously long. If I were you, I'd form a mob. Then again, the story isn't finished yet, so if you formed a mob and came and killed me, the story would never end, sooooo...

Alright, truth is, it's been so long that I actually really don't like this story anymore. I don't like anything about it really. I read through it again and hated how OOC everyone pretty much is and for the sake of continuity I have to keep writing them that way. Not a fun task, as I always strive for in characterness. Oh well. I will finish this story anyway because I promised you all that I would! See how much I love you.

Also, I don't know how this is going to end. Will someone please tell me. At this point I'm pretty much improv writing, just letting the stream of conciousness take me where it will and hoping I end up someplace awesome. This does not appeare to be happening however.

Anyway, onto excuses. Reasons why I have not been here: Ren Fest, then school, then the my niece and nephew coming to visit (hard to write about homosexual aliens with a six year old in the room, let me tell you), beach vacation, costume making, metrocon, Dad's sick friend moving in, lost my flash drive with the stories on it, auditioned for Busch Gardens' Howl-O-Scream, working BG's HoS (so far I've played a girl in middle of painfully transforming into a vampire, and a practically comatose girl in love with the band that is the mascot), and that's pretty much it. Lot's happened, but the main reason I haven't been writing is I lost the flash drive, and once that's gone so is my motivation, man.

Awesome news though! (Yes, I'm trying to start all these paragraphs with an 'a' word.) For those of you that have read mine and the RPer previously known as The Smallest Invader's fics Tying the Grudge Knot, Under my Skin, and Sri, I would like to announce that I'm currently going through them and re-writing them in an attempt to make the character's more in character, fix grammar and spelling mistakes, elaborate on things that need it, fix plot wholes, and just to generally make it more enjoyable. This is a solo task, TSI will not be joining me in this venture, she has read through the first couple of chapters and approves with all the changes so far, so there is that. Most of the dialogue is being kept in tact, I'm just trying to bring more of the essence of IZ back to it and less of the inside jokes that TSI and I found funny at the time (and a less girly Zim.)

I'm not sure when I'll start posting, I have the first five and a half chapters done, so you can expect them soon. (Damn, this didn't start with an 'a!')

* * *

Dib was devastated when the ship that reached them was empty and he realized just how faulty Lix's planning had been. Of COURSE something like this would happen! But with Lix's promise to the Tallest there was no way he couldn't have gone. They would have killed Zim then and there.

Though Karen did make a point of telling him that it was probably good that Lix was with Zim, because if Zim had come back on that ship, and discovered they let Lix do something so reckless, Zim would probably have killed them. On this Dib had to agree, but it didn't make the revelation any easier.

* * *

"Relax, I can do this." Lix told his 'mother', who was tapping a foot impatiently on the ground as the younger irken tried to pick the lock on the door.

"You can't pick these locks, Lix." Zim sighed. "Even if you get THAT one it's impossible to get the other one because they put a bolt on the outside."

With that Lix sighed in exasperation and felt back on his butt, asking, "Well what do you want to do then?"

"Move back," Zim said, getting up and going over to the door, saying, "I want to do what I do best."

"What's that?" Lix asked, doing as Zim told him.

"Making things go boom." Zim said with a smirk.

* * *

The Tallest sat in their lounge, relaxing and stuffing their faces with snacks. "We have all the leverage we need now!" Red said. "There's no way the resistance can do anything now!"

The ship lurched in a less than pleasing way, making the Tallest stop and look around. "What was that?" Purple inquired.

Red shook his head and turned to a guard standing nearby. "Go find out what that-…" The ship rocked more. "…was…."

The ship then jerked violently and a technician quickly rushed in, breathing apologies as he caught his breath. "Sirs! We're… under attack!"

"What!"

* * *

Dib hugged his sister tightly upon arrival, sighing in relief.

"Thank God you're here." He said, pulling back quickly when she gave him a growl.

"How have you managed to hold them off this long?" Gaz asked, one eye squinting open. Her troops were already on the attack, a battle waging outside the window beside them. She trained them hard, and it seemed that paid off.

"We've been in hostage negotiations, you could say." Dib said, shaking his head.

"Who's got who?" Gaz asked.

"Well, we did have an irken, but then they captured one of ours, and now they have them both."

"Zim, and their son." Karen interjected, making Gaz's eyes widen in surprise.

"Who had a kid with the freak? What happened to hating him for leaving you?"

"I don't have time to explain, can we just go get them!" Dib growled, his own eyes narrowing.

Gaz paused, looking to be thinking it over, which just made Dib angry. Finally she nodded, saying, "Alright, let's go."

* * *

The door blew off the cell and Zim led Lix out into the hall. No one seemed to notice though, so sneaking wasn't necessary. It probably had something to do with all the movement the ship was making, but Zim didn't take the time to ponder it as he and Lix made their way to the front of the ship.

"Where are we going?" Lix asked, hoping to be part of the planning process.

"We're going to hijack a ship, where else would we be going?" Zim asked.

"Don't you think we should be doing something more produc-" he paused as they were thrown against a wall as whoever it was kept up the attack. "productive?"

"We don't have time to be productive." Zim said, grabbing Lix's wrist and pulling him along.

"This is the perfect time to be productive!" Lix argued. "If we're going to take out the Tallest this is the time to do it!"

Zim stopped, turning to Lix and saying, "We're not sticking around to do anything to the Tallest, that's suicide!"

"It is not, it's perfect! Zim we can do it!" Lix shouted.

"No! I'm not putting you in danger because of them!" Zim shouted back, looking stern, but not angry. He could never be angry with Lix. "I'm your caretaker; I have to take care of you!"

Lix's antennae folded and he looked concerned. He pulled Zim down by his arm, saying, "Its okay, I know Zim. I know who you are."

Zim about flinched, his own antennae perking in surprise, though he tried to deny it. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Yes you do Zim… I've known you were my parent for a long time. Dib explained the rest." Lix said.

Zim growled. Stupid Dib, always making stupid decisions and opening his stupid mouth when it wasn't needed. "He shouldn't have told you."

"That doesn't matter." Lix said. "What does is the Tallest will never stop hunting us, the both of us, until you're dead and I'm with them. We have to take care of things now or who knows how long this will go on."

Zim couldn't argue with that logic, but he shook his head anyway. "I'm not putting you in danger." He stood and continued to lead Lix to the docking bay.

"No! Zim! Please! We have to do this!" Lix argued all the way there.

Zim pulled Lix in front of him once he'd chosen a craft and said with a frown. "Go. Take this shuttle and go back to the resistance."

"What?" Lix asking, looking surprised. "No, I'm not leaving you!"

"You're right." Zim said. "This has to end, but you're not going to be the one to end it, so go."

* * *

Gaz flew the ship expertly, but then that's how she did everything, through the battle, dodging laser fire and ducking and weaving around friendly and enemy ships. She landed smoothly in the Massive's docking bay with no interference, everyone who COULD interfere being out in battle.

"There's Zim and Lix!" Dib shouted excitedly, a smile on his face now that he saw that they were okay. The smile faded, however, when he saw Zim run off, leaving Lix by the ship. Dib jumped out and quickly ran over to his son, who looked beyond worried. "Where is he going?" Dib asked.

"To find the Tallest." Lix said, antennae quivering.

Dib's eyebrows furrowed and he quickly called over to Gaz. "Take Lix and go, I'll get Zim and we'll catch up!" He then point Lix over at the ship. "That's your aunt Gaz, she'll take care of you." And with that he ran after his Irken lover.

(Break)

Zim found the Tallest's chamber's with little problem. So few guards were still left in the ship that it was easy to get past the few that were and find his former leaders.

He pulled a laser from his pak before forcing himself through the door, yelling, "This ends! I'm not putting up with it anymore!" Only to find he was yelling into an empty room. He stepped in and slowly looked around, frowning when he didn't see anyone there.

"YOU're not putting up with it anymore?" Came a voice from behind. He whirled and there stood the once towering forms of Red and Purple, having been hiding behind a consol.

"That's right!" He said, pulling up his weapon, only to have it shot out of his hand, old-west style, the laser burning.

"Zim, we've had to put up with YOUR antics our entire lives." Red growled, holding up his own laser, which was much more impressive looking than what Zim had been wielding. "Horrible Painful Overload Days one and two. The destruction you'd created of Operation Impending Doom One, or, how about hijacking our ship and sending us hurling through the sun!"

Zim just glared, but, after all the time he'd had to reflect, he knew all of those awful things were true. He was a disgrace to his own race.

"It's time WE didn't have to put up with YOU anymore." Purple said, correcting Zim's previous statement.

"Now, say good bye." Red said, pulling the trigger.


	16. Chapter 16

Ahhhhh I am sooooooo soooooorry about the long wait for this chapter but SO MUCH happened! Like, my brain is STILL trying to catch up to everything. But, it's the summer and I only have one class now so hopefully I'll be able to actually finish this story SOON.

Anyway, one of the things that happened was that my computer was slowly dying, and still is really, but I had it reformatted and scrubbed clean of viruses so that it could at least last me through this semester and maybe next. The unfortunate effect of doing that wiped my version of Microsoft Word, and so I apologize now for any grammatical errors you find in this chapter, although there shouldn't be TOO many as I started this chapter in Word a while ago. I'm currently downloading something that my brother claims to be just as good as word, and is free, but I'm not sure, as he's too tech savvy for me, so his opinion of what's 'just as good' and mine differ slightly (his usually being 'more complicated than is necessary'.) So, I guess we'll see.

But, I'm still writing, so hopfully the next chapter won't take forever to write. In the meantime check out some of my other works if you haven't, I'm also rewriting a trilogly that I wrote with a friend and may be starting on another fic soon, once I'm done with this.

* * *

Red cried out as he was tackled to the floor, laser missing Zim's head by a good five inches.

"How about you shut the hell up!" Dib yelled, punching Red in the face before being pulled off by Purple and his impressive looking mechanical spider legs.

"Dib!" Zim shouted in surprise before quickly looking around and finding his laser. He picked it up and aimed, shooting at Purple's pak.

Purple gasped, the laser leaving a burn on the metal but leaving it otherwise unharmed. The legs dropped Dib and Purple whirled on Zim who fired again. Purple guarded with his gauntlets and fired his own laser on the defect.

Dib grunted when he fell, staring at an angry looking Red, now standing, his height towering slightly over the human's standing height.

"We're going to wipe out your entire RACE!" He hissed, pulling Dib up by his hair and holding him out at arm's length to prevent the human from swinging at him. "It's a shame really. You human's make such good slaves. Maybe we'll keep just YOU alive so at the very least you can witness your race's fate. Then you can serve us for the rest of your miserable life, with the knowledge that YOU are the reason there are no more humans."

Dib grunted, holding onto the alien gauntlet. He put his weight on it, almost hanging from the thin arm that should not be able to support the human's weight, so he could bring his foot up and kick the taller in the stomach.

Dib dropped once more, Red doubling over. It was not an overly disarming move thanks to all the armor, but the force pushed him back and gave Dib just enough time to draw a gun of his own from a holster on his hip. He aimed it at Red's head, but the tall irken dodged just in time. The bullet shattered on impact with the floor, releasing a burst of water from inside.

Zim ducked behind one of the computer consoles as Purple fired at him, narrowly escaping the blast.

"Why couldn't you be a good defect and stay BANISHED!" Purple shouted, glaring and firing again in rage, though he knew it couldn't hit its target and that he was only causing damage to his computers.

Zim grit his teeth, avoiding old feelings of pride that just caused pain. Instead he peaked out from around the computer, aiming his laser and firing. Purple was too slow this time, and screamed as he dropped to the floor, a hand going to hold his face in pain.

"Purple!" Red shouted, distracted, turning to his partner. Smoke was billowing from a hole in his face where an eye once was. That beautiful violet eye!

"You disgusting defect!" Red yelled, enraged that his partner had been marred so and turned his attention away from the human.

Red's spider legs sprouted from his pak, tips lighting up in a dangerous looking red. Zim managed to dodge in just enough time to avoid the large, square shaped laser that completely destroyed the terminal he'd been hiding behind.

Dib gasped, eyes widening for just a moment before he fired his gun, a bullet piercing through the flesh of thin legs and exploding, the acidic water dissolving green flesh and alien muscle.

Red dropped to the floor as well, Dib aiming his gun at the Tallest's head, yelling, "Give up! You can't win this!"

Purple was still crying out in pain for his lost eye, Zim getting up and pointing his own gun at that Tallest's head.

"Don't SPARE them Dib!" Zim yelled, antennae back in a show of extreme anger. "Let me kill them RIGHT now!"

"That's not going to solve anything!" Dib yelled before pausing to think about that. "Okay, that'll solve SOME things, but we will never gain control of the overall irken problem if we just kill them!"

"I don't CARE about the 'irken problem'!" Zim yelled. "Because of all the pain they caused ME personally they should die!"

"Zim, you can't just DO that!" Dib argued. "It will make you feel better in the moment but it's not going to make things better!"

Red watched the two back and forth, growling after a moment and grabbing the human's gun, elbowing him in the stomach. The Tallest drew up on spider legs, keeping the weight off his injured leg and holding the human around the neck tight, almost suffocating him.

Zim quickly aiming his laser at Red, but Red was defending himself by using the human as a shield.

"You should listen to the defect, human." Red said, as though admitting to having cheated at a board game. "He knows these things."

"Let him go!" Zim barked. "That's my human!"

"I don't think so." Red said as he trained the human's own gun on his head. "Drop your weapon Zim."

Zim growled in irritation. Dib and his dumb toys. He could have just used a high pressure water gun!

"I said drop it!" Red yelled once more.

Zim sneered at this defeat, dropping his laser to the ground and holding his hands up in defeat.

"That's it." Red said in a mocking voice. "Why can't you ALWAYS be this obedient?"

Dib thrashed, trying to get out of the alien grip, but his feet were not quite planted firmly enough on the ground. He thrashed more when Red trained the gun on Zim.

"Don't move," The Tallest said, grinning. A bang rang out through the room, and for a moment time stood still.

Dib waited for Zim to fall, screaming in pain, but instead he felt it was himself that was falling and he hit the floor with a 'thud'.

It took a moment for him to realize that he had the weight of the red Tallest on top of him, and that both he and Zim were fine.

In poured a squad of several armored humans, all of them wearing the colors of Gaz's troop.

"Grab the shorter irken and Dib," The commander said to a few troops before turning to some others. "You take the Tallests, put them in the holding cell… if they're still alive."

The rest was a blur of stars and green. They were hustled onto a ship and taken back to the base, all the while Zim was strangely quiet. They got very little alone time as they were both examined and questioned. Then of course Karen and the kids had to come in and fuss over them. Zim clung to Lix the entire time they visited before they were told they needed to go back to their room. Karen agreed to take both kids while Zim and Dib took time to recuperate.

"He takes after you, you know." Dib said after a while, sitting in a hospital bed next to Zim. Zim looked over at the human out of the corner of his eye before turning fully to Dib and punching him in the shoulder.

"How could you let Lix trade himself for me!" He yelled, glaring. "Lix is SO much more important! You're his father, you should have protected him!"

Dib grunted, rubbing the abused shoulder before saying, "I didn't have a choice! Like I said, he takes after YOU!"

"And you told him about me without me!" Zim yelled.

"Look, do you REALLY want to argue right now!" Dib barked. "Because I can argue 'til we're both blue in the face! Or whatever color you Irkens turned when you run out of breath!"

Zim opened his mouth to say something witty and Zim-like but Dib cut him off in a hurry.

"But!" He said. "I'd rather cherish the fact that everyone is safe and the Tallest have been defeated and we have each other again."

Zim's mouth closed, though he looked at the human in aggravation.

Dib wrapped his arms around Zim, who, upon contact, Dib realized was shaking slightly.

"Zim?"

"I wanted to kill them so badly." Zim almost whispered. "They should be dead for what they put me through."

"Zim, we can't be all mad at them." Dib said, and added quickly before the little green alien could punch him again. "If they hadn't held you captive you would have just given Lix away or terminated him. Because of them we have a son together. A little creature made of you and me. For that, at least, we can spare them for a more formal execution, right?"

Zim looked up at Dib, still looking angry for a moment before sighing. "I guess so."

"Good," Dib said, hugging Zim tight. "Now come on, let's find our family."

Dib stood to lead Zim out of the med ward, but Zim quickly grabbed the human's arm and said, "Wait."

Dib looked annoyed, but paused, asking, "What?"

"What about Karen?" He asked, looking at Dib seriously.

Dib looked guilty, and for a moment Zim thought Dib was going to say that he couldn't leave her, and Zim wouldn't have blamed Dib.

"Zim, she and I were never in love." Dib explained. "She's always just been my friend. Our marriage was just her helping me out with my father, and Hollin was a happy accident. I told her about you long before we married and she knew when she offered to marry me that eventually it would have to end."

Zim didn't look sure, and Did leaned in to kiss the alien, which he accepted eagerly.

"Come on," The human said. "We can talk about this tonight after dinner."

Zim accepted this and let Dib lead him to the human's apartment where Karen, Hollin, Lix, and Gaz were waiting.

"Hey Gaz, what are you doing here?" Dib asked. "I thought you'd be long gone by now."

"I had to see my niece and nephew before I was off." Gaz explained. "And I wanted to inform you that I will be taking the Tallest with me. My station is closer to the Irken Empire, so I can more easily use the Tallest as leverage."

"Make sense, do what you want with them, but let us know when you plan to execute." Dib said, feeling a bit safer with the knowledge that Gaz would be taking control of that.

"Will do." Gaz said, although looking to be addressing Zim more than Dib. Zim gave a nod of understanding and thanks, which Gaz seemed to ignore in favor of the children.

After a few moments of socializing Gaz had to leave and she waved everyone good-bye as she walked out, leaving the family alone.

Zim was careful to avoid eye contact with Karen, still feeling very weird about how this situation ended up. How would Hollin be affected by all of this? Lix was irken, Zim knew he would be fine, no matter what happened, but he knew from human television shows that human children were fragile, especially when it came to their parents.

"Have you made up your mind then, Dib?" Karen asked, looking at Dib with a smile.

"Let's talk after dinner." Dib said, smiling back and nodding.

They all ate in almost silence, the only conversation being one between Hollin and Lix, Hollin being jealous that Lix got to go on an adventure and she didn't. Lix tried to explain that it was very dangerous, but Hollin still insisted that she could have been useful.

After dinner the children were allowed to go off and play while Dib, Zim, and Karen sat in the living room, Zim feeling very uncomfortable.

"I can have the papers drawn up tomorrow, Dib." Karen said, looking completely at ease.

"That's fantastic." Dib said, hugging Zim, who looked up at the human woman, confused.

"Is it really that easy?" Zim asked, pouting in his confusion. "What about Hollin?"

"She'll be alright. We told her a year ago that there may be a time when we would have to separate, but we assured her that it we wouldn't be moving so far that she couldn't see her daddy." Karen said, nodding.

"We told her that while we liked each other very much that there was someone else who I was supposed to be with, and she understood." Dib said. "Or, at least, she equated it to a fairy tale, and called Karen my substitute princess."

"She'll be alright." Karen assured Zim. "And so will I. If done civilly divorce doesn't always break the people involve."

Dib cuddled Zim and Zim cuddled back, a smile on his face. "Good." He sighed, feeling much more at ease. "Good."


End file.
